UK must prepare for 'ever-increasing' flood risk » Communities » 24dash.com

The Government must take urgent action to protect the UK against the "ever-increasing threat" of flooding, the author of the independent review into last summer's devastating floods warned today.

Sir Michael Pitt said research published as part of his Government-commissioned study showed climate change had the potential to cause even more "extreme scenarios" than were previously considered possible.

While it was not clear if the flooding in June and July last year was the direct result of climate change, the UK must prepare for increasing flood risk, his report said.

He called on the Government to take a lead and urgently set out the process and timescale for how it would rapidly improve the UK's resilience to flooding.

Sir Michael also said the number of people still out of their homes was "a matter for concern" and remained "unacceptably high".

Launching his report today, he said: "Research published as part of my report today shows that the risk of flooding continues to escalate, making the events that shattered so many communities last year an ever-increasing threat.

"I urge the Government to show leadership and urgently set out the process and timescale for improving resilience in the UK.

"The recommendations in my report are realistic and affordable and should be made a priority.

"Waiting for another serious event is a dangerous 'strategy of luck'; we must act now to protect our future," he said.

Sir Michael published his report in London today, with 92 recommendations, including calls for the Ministry of Defence to identify a number of trained armed forces personnel to be deployed to advise those working in the response to civil emergencies.

He also said the Met Office should continue to improve its forecasting and prediction abilities, more work needed to be done to protect critical infrastructure such as water treatment and power plants and railways against flooding, and the Government should put in place a "fully funded" capability for flood rescue, with fire and rescue services playing a central role.

All relevant organisations should have a duty to share information with the Environment Agency and local authorities to help manage flood risk, his report recommended.

He also said authorities needed to be "more willing to tell the truth" about the risk of flooding, because a lack of clarity and transparency was putting people's homes and lives in danger.

Last year's floods across Yorkshire and Humberside, the Midlands and the West Country claimed 13 lives, forced thousands from their homes and cost £3 billion in damage.

Publishing his review, Sir Michael said authorities and the public were taken by surprise by the "sheer scale" of the flooding which took place last summer, after the wettest May to July on record by a long way.

Sir Michael, who has already called for flood planning to be on a par with dealing with terrorism or a flu pandemic, said urgent and fundamental changes in the way the country is adapting to the increased risk of flooding were needed.

He said there should be a Cabinet Committee dedicated to tackling the risk of flooding, to bring it in line with other major threats.

Other recommendations included:

• The Met Office and Environment Agency should have a joint centre to improve their ability to forecast, model and warn against flood threats.
• Building regulations should be revised for refurbishing or building new homes to make them more resilient to flooding.
• Local authorities should collate and map drainage systems - which contributed to much of the problems last summer, as a significant proportion of the floods were caused by surface water systems.
• The Environment Agency should work with telephone companies to roll-out an "opt-out" telephone flood warning scheme, in which at-risk people are automatically signed up, even those who are ex-directory.
• House Information Packs (Hips) should include information on flood risk and there should be an obligation, when somebody purchases a home, that searches show up flood risk.
• The public should make up a flood kit, including personal documents, insurance policy, emergency contact numbers, torches, wind-up radios, first aid kit, blankets, mobile phone, wet wipes or anti-bacterial gel and rubber gloves.
• In order to ensure people get back into their homes as quickly as possible, the Government should publish monthly summaries of the progress of the recovery, including the number of households still displaced.

Sir Michael, explaining the proposal for a Cabinet committee dedicated to tackling the risk of flooding, said: "This is about bringing the importance of flood risk up alongside the importance of terrorism and flu pandemic.

"We want a central Government to deliver on these recommendations and therefore it needs leadership right from the top, at least at Secretary of State level."

Speaking at a news conference in central London, Sir Michael said the review puts forward "straightforward, practical, reasonable and affordable" recommendations.

He said: "We have done our best to make the recommendations straightforward, practical, reasonable and affordable. I can see no reason as to why this should not now become Government policy and taken forward."

After Sir Michael published his interim report into the flooding in December last year, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was setting £35 million aside for implementing the recommendations of the review.

Today Sir Michael said he didn't think the cash would be enough but was "a good step in the right direction" and showed positive intentions.

But he said around four-fifths of the recommendations could be implemented within existing budgets.

"A great deal is about people changing the way they do things. My view is this report is affordable.

"I'm not proposing anything here so outlandishly expensive that it should stand in the way of implementation," he said.

He also said the £800 million for flood defences by 2010/2011 promised by the Government was a trend in the right direction and should continue in the future, but would not put an exact figure on how much he thought should be spent on dealing with flooding.

Asked today - on the anniversary of the first significant flooding which inundated Sheffield and Hull - if the country was any better prepared now, he said: "There's no doubt in my mind there's a much greater state of awareness of the risk of flooding."

He said while some work, such as looking at the vulnerability of critical infrastructure, had begun there was a "great deal more to be done" and called for a two-year action plan to implement his recommendations.

Sir Michael said during the first part of the review he has spent a "huge amount" of time travelling the country talking to flood victims. He said these were not just homeowners but were businesses and farmers.

He said there had been "significant limitations" on the quality of predictions as to which localities would flood.

He said: "Many people were flooded long before they received any warning from any organisation about flood risks and also emergency services, gold silver command, and utility companies I think were also taken aback by the sheer scale and impact of the flooding that took place last summer."

He added that the "enormous amount" of time it has taken for many people to get back into their homes was also a major issue.

"Even today, one year later now, on the anniversary of the first significant flooding, there are over 4,000 people who are living in some form of temporary accommodation and the survey work that we have undertaken demonstrates a close correlation between mental and physical health and the amount of time that people are displaced from their properties, so this has become for me a major issue."

Sir Michael said a year on from the flooding, more than 4,000 households were still not back in their homes, mostly because of the delays in drying out properties.

If he were to point the finger at anyone over the delay, he said it would be the issue of inappropriate construction and absence of sustainable drainage systems.

He called for new and refurbished homes to be flood-resilient, for example with concrete floors, electrics raised from floor level and plastic skirting boards instead of wood.

The report also called for inundation maps for reservoirs to be made public to allow individuals, schools, businesses and emergency services to plan for breaches, following the near failure of the Ulley Dam, near Rotherham last year.

Some 1,000 people had to be evacuated and the M1 closed, but because emergency services did not have access to the information about which areas were at risk of destruction if the reservoir overflowed, they had to draw up their inundation map based on Ordnance Survey maps in the middle of the night.

Based on analysis of the numbers at risk in one area of the country, the Pitt Review said somewhere between 3.5 million and 4.3 million people could be at risk from dam failure, depending on the time of day - although the risk is low.

But Roger Hargreaves, head of the Pitt Review team, said while the probability of a dam failure was low, the impact would be high, which is why they were calling for inundation maps which the reservoir or dam managers draw up to be made public.

"Dams do fail. The Ulley Dam came close to failing and with an ageing dam stock, it makes sense to take a different kind of approach," he said

Sir Michael said that for critical infrastructure and dams and reservoirs there must be new and clear duties on companies and organisations to share information well before an emergency and work much more closely with emergency planners as they prepare their arrangements for any future emergencies which might arise.

"There is a tension here between issues of security because we're talking about critical infrastructure sites which could be terrorist opportunities and also tensions around commercial sensitivity.

"The argument we present in the report is where does the public interest lie? And the view we have is we need to move from a culture of need to know to a culture of need to share information," he said.

He said Ulley Dam was an "unnecessary risk", and it should have been possible to plan for its possible failure well in advance of last year's flooding.

Responding to the report, Sheffield City Council leader Paul Scriven said: "Making sure everyone is given the maximum protection from flooding is a key issue for the council.

"Last year's floods caused major devastation in Sheffield and we need to do all that we can to try and avoid the same thing happening in the future.

"Sheffield responded well to last year's floods, but there are always lessons to be learned, and we will look at the issues raised in the Pitt Report very carefully to see what lessons we can learn and how we can make improvements.

"Where we already have resources in place we will take a lead in improving our systems, but if there are major resources required then we will be approaching the Government to provide support."

Sheffield was one of the cities worst hit by the floods. Two people died and hundreds of home were flooded when the River Don burst its banks on June 25 last year, turning many streets into raging torrents.

An unprecedented rescue operation involving three RAF helicopters saw dozens of office workers plucked from buildings in the Lower Don Valley but many other people were left trapped overnight by the floodwaters.