UK Government slammed over flood defences

The Government is not doing enough to protect communities from flooding, a Commons committee has warned.

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) called on the Government to change its approach to flooding - to be more preventative rather than reactive.

Committee Chair Mary Creagh urged the Government to invest in new flood defences as well as pay for the upkeep of existing ones.

"We know that flooding is projected to get worse and occur more frequently because of climate change, so it just isn't good enough for Government to react to flooding events as they occur.

"Communities at risk deserve certainty from Government," she said.

The call comes as flash floods hit parts of England following stormy weather. In December and January storms Desmond, Eva and Frank caused £1.3bn damage.

In the wake of the storms the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) warned the current system was unsustainable.

Heather Forbes, Senior Policy Officer in SEPA’s Flood Risk Management team, said:

“Flooding has caused devastation and misery for many people across Scotland in recent weeks, and highlighted the increasing pressure on flood risk defences. To continue to focus only on managing flooding through these traditional means is not sustainable.”

The Scottish Government made a further £12m available for flood defences in January in the wake of the storms and opened the National Centre for Resilience in Dumfries.

The UK Government has since committed £2.3bn to building new flood defences in the rest of the UK but the EAC committee was "sceptical" as to whether the sum would be enough to protect the 300,000 homes promised.

Creagh said: "The government needs to put money into the upkeep of existing flood defences as well as investing in new defences. Failure to do so can have terrible consequences for residents and businesses when defences fail.

"Any decline in the condition of critical flood defences represents an unacceptable risk to local communities in flood prone areas. We urge the government to go beyond its current target and aim to have virtually all its critical assets meeting the Environment Agency's required condition by 2019."

The Government insisted it is investing "record amounts to protect the nation".