Flood Preparation
Thursday, 22 October 2026
Contributions
Adrian Ramsay (Waveney Valley) (Green)Green Party
9. What steps her Department is taking to prepare communities for flooding in winter 2026-27.
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)Labour
The Government are working hard to prepare communities for flooding this winter. Last week was Flood Action Week, and a wide range of information was communicated to citizens on how to protect themselves, their homes and their businesses. My personal favourite is the new Scout badge; if Members have children who are in the Scouts, they can now earn a badge saying “be prepared”, which I thought was brilliant. The communication targeted young adults, renters, householders, children, rural communities—quite frankly, everyone.
I thank the Minister for her reply. We have already seen unprecedented climate impacts this summer, and with the super El Niño on its way, we will see threats to global weather patterns, including a forecasted colder, wetter and stormier winter for the UK. How is she working across Government to ensure that preparedness for flooding risks this winter are stepped up, to keep our communities safe?
The hon. Gentleman raises a really important point. We used to have the flood taskforce; just last week, we held the first meeting of the new flood and drought taskforce, which was attended by four Ministers—from DEFRA, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Department for Transport. The focus of that meeting absolutely was how we can be most prepared. I am determined that this year, because of El Niño and the concerns that the hon. Gentleman rightly raised, we will be more prepared than ever before. That is why we have done everything from targeting children and families, all the way through to looking at our transport system, resilience across Government and local resilience forums to see whether they are ready if the worst should happen. We are going out to every area and talking to Ministers across Government, so that they can contact the organisations for which they are responsible and ask them if they are prepared and ready. Although I cannot stop it raining, I want us to be as prepared as possible when it does rain.
Catherine Fookes (Monmouthshire) (Lab)Labour
As hon. Members will remember, it is almost a year since devastating floods hit Monmouth, and parts of the town have flooded several times in the past few years. I spoke to a constituent yesterday who had been flooded in a previous flood. Such was the damage, they were not able to get back in their house for two years. Will the Minister look at upstream flood resilience measures, over the border in England, to reduce the risk of flooding to communities like mine?
My hon. Friend raises an important point. I remember that flood. I commend her now, as I did then, on the compassionate, caring and supportive way in which she went out there to help her constituents, and I know how much the events affected her. She is right to talk about catchment-based flood management, looking upstream and using more nature-based solutions. I know the Environment Agency is working well with its Welsh counterparts to see what more can be done in this area.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5423134.