28 March 2008
The legal framework for flood risk management is 'a mess', with gaps that make it hard to establish who is responsible for what, Sir Michael Pitt, who is carrying out a review of last summer's floods, has warned.
'Flood risk is here to stay and probably will get worse,' Pitt told a conference organised by the Local Government Information Unit on March 26. The country was 'not well prepared' for the floods, he said. 'Many people in high command... were on a voyage of discovery.'
He urged new legislation to cover essential areas such as responsibility for drainage and other elements of flood risk management.
'What a mess the legal framework is,' he said. People were unable to tell who was accountable for which elements of infrastructure or disaster response. 'The reality is the legal framework does not join up.'
He added: 'There were really quite serious problems of forecasting and delivering warnings to people of the onset of flooding.'
The Environment Agency had not had full responsibility for handling all types of flood risk, he warned, with particular ambiguity surrounding surface water flooding – the 'enormously quick, enormously dangerous' phenomenon that hit two-thirds of the properties affected by the summer floods.
Closer involvement of water and electricity companies in flood planning and response was needed, he said. 'Vital information was not available to emergency responders. People did not understand their drainage systems.'
Pitt said he hoped councils would be given statutory responsibility for local leadership and co-ordination of flood risk management. 'Above all, the country has got to invest in local leadership in relation to flood risk management.'
But he warned that the Bellwin emergency finance scheme for councils had probably had its day, calling for a 'completely transparent and equitable regime for funding in dire emergencies'.
The conference also heard Environment Agency chair Sir John Harman reveal research showing that a significant risk of flooding threatened much of the country's critical infrastructure.
This included 1,000 power stations and installations, 1,145 water and sewage works, 834 ambulance, police and fire stations and many railway stations, care homes and schools.
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