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NEWS RELEASE

Ref: 392/08
Date: 17 December 2008

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New alert centre to improve response to flooding

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has today announced  a new warning centre to help protect people and businesses from flooding.

The £7.7 million flood forecasting centre, run by the Met Office and Environment Agency, will improve the country’s ability to predict and respond to flooding by providing a single national forecasting and alert service. 

It will help emergency responders to prepare for and respond to flooding.  The service will complement the existing public flood warning arrangements from the Environment Agency.

The centre is part of the Government’s action plan in response to Sir Michael Pitt’s review of the 2007 summer floods, which recommended that a better warning system was need in the event of flooding. 

Hilary Benn said:

“In a flood, preparation and speed of response are crucial.  A joint national flood forecasting and alert service will help by providing timely warnings and ensure we get the right help to the people who need it most in the shortest possible time.”

Mr Benn also announced today:

  • £15 million to help local authorities co-ordinate and lead flood management locally so that residents know who is in charge in the event of flooding.  Local authorities will be responsible for managing the risk of surface water flooding, and producing a co-ordinated plan for dealing with local flooding.  As an immediate step, six local authorities are being funded to develop plans for how they will deal with surface water flooding in the event of extreme rainfall.  The plans will also assess the risk of local surface water flooding and predict where it could happen;
  • £5 million to help people to better protect their homes through installing flood protection measures, such as door boards and airbrick covers. This will help in cases where, for example, it is not possible to provide protection through larger community level defences, such as embankments and walls;
  • up to £2 million to improve water rescue, including money for additional rescue boats and trained personnel;
  • up to £1.25 million funding for Local Resilience Forums to prepare emergency plans in case of reservoir dam failure;
  • an extra £8.5 million for the Environment Agency in its new role as the organisation with overall responsibility for flooding, to make flood warnings available to ex-directory households, improve how potential surface water flooding is predicted and mapped and help the agency implement other recommendations.

Mr Benn said:

“We are taking action on all of Sir Michael Pitt’s recommendations.

“The floods of summer 2007 were devastating and affected many people’s lives.  We can’t stop sudden heavy rainfall, as the flooding last weekend in parts of the country showed, but we can be as prepared as possible.  And this action plan will mean that we are better able to respond. 

“All of us – government, local communities, providers of essential services such as water and electricity, and individuals – must take flood risk seriously and play our part.  We need to act to reduce the risk where we can, and be ready to step in with effective help and recovery arrangements when flooding does happen. Our record £2.15 billion investment in flood defences and coastal erosion management over the next three years, which will protect an additional 145,000 households, will help achieve this.”

 

Notes to editors

  1. The Government’s action plan can be found at: www.defra.gov.uk/environ/fcd/floods07.htm
  2. The London-based Flood Forecasting Centre, operated by the Met Office and Environment Agency, will cover England and Wales.  The Government is contributing £5 million and £2.7 million additional funding will be met by the organisations.
  3. The six local authorities being funded to develop surface water management plans are: Gloucestershire, Hull, Leeds, Richmond, Warrington and West Berkshire. 
  4. In his statement to Parliament on 25 June 2008, the Secretary of State set out action that had already been taken in a number of key areas, including:
    1. Making available £136 million to help local authorities assist those in greatest need, repair infrastructure and help schools and businesses to get going again.
    2. Adding 79,000 people to the Environment Agency’s flood warning system and moving to providing the service on an “opt out” rather than “opt in” basis.
    3. Investing £5 million on repairing structures damaged in summer 2007, with further major work programmes underway in Hull and Gloucester.
    4. Defining the new, and complementary, roles that the Environment Agency and local authorities should play in ensuring that flooding from all sources is addressed, including from surface water.
    5. Ensuring that flood risk to our critical infrastructure and essential services is identified and necessary action taken. 
    6. Making sure that local emergency planners have flood maps for all reservoirs coming under the Reservoirs Act by the end of 2009.
    7. Improving preparedness for severe flooding by developing a National Flood Emergency Framework.  We are consulting on this from today.
    8. Publishing a draft Floods and Water Bill in Spring 2009 which will also take forward many of Sir Michael’s recommendations.
    9. Developing, with the Environment Agency, a Long Term Investment Strategy for flood and coastal erosion risk management.
  5. Mr Benn announced today that a total of more than £60 million will be invested in taking forward the  priorities identified in Sir Michael’s report; £34.5 million set aside specifically for the action plan together with a further £27 million of funding identified in other budgets.
  6. Since the severe flooding of summer 2007, the Environment Agency has completed flood defence schemes in the following areas:
EA Region  Number of households with reduced flood risk
Anglian  14,011
Midlands 5,651
North East 1,118
North West 7,483
Southern  1,553
South West 668
Thames 6,677

 

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Page published: 17 December 2008

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs