A group of MPs has warned that the Government is in danger of rushing through an ‘ineffective’ Flood and Water Management Bill.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee said such a move would leave local communities with little influence over decisions regarding flood and water management issues.
The committee’s Draft Flood and Water Management Bill report has urged the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (DEFRA) to resist the temptation to rush through a ‘stripped down’ piece of legislation in order to be seen as doing something. According to the MPs, the draft proposals create an ‘overly-centralised approach’ which downgrades local knowledge and democratic accountability in favour of ‘sweeping powers’ for the Environment Agency (EA).
The draft Bill said councils would benefit substantially from savings arising from the transfer of private sewers to sewage companies but local authorities claim this cost is not always significant, and many councils said they had very few private sewers, if any at all.
The Local Government Association (LGA) contested the assertion that these savings and those arising from the reduced costs of future flooding would cover councils’ additional costs.
‘We have serious concerns over the financing of the local authority lead role. Insufficient work has been undertaken by any of the organisations involved in flood-risk management to be certain of the costs involved,’ the LGA told the committee.
The report said, despite DEFRA assurances, there were still concerns the impact assessment was ‘insufficiently precise’ and did not provide enough evidence to support cost and benefit calculations, which put the Bill’s overall net value at £5.12bn. Uncertainty surrounded the costs of adopting and maintaining sustainable drainage systems (SUDS), it added.
On the skills issue, the committee welcomed the Government’s announcement of funding to support local authority staff participating in the EA’s foundation degree programme. However, the MPs called on DEFRA to provide details of how many employees would benefit and how long it would take before each authority had sufficiently qualified workforces.
The committee recommended that DEFRA explore the local authority-proposed catchment area flood-management boards as an alternative to regional flood defence committees.
Welcoming this recommendation, Dr Andy Johnston, head of the Local Government Information Unit’s centre for local sustainability, said: ‘We support the need for catchment flood-management boards which allow for local partners to review their arrangements and identify innovative activities. Under these partnerships, the lead local flood authority would be able to apply to the secretary of state for additional powers.’
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmenvfru.htm
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