ADA meets Defra Ministers

Innes Thomson, Emma Hardy, and Robert Caudwell, at Defra’s offices in London on Wednesday 11 September 2024

By Innes Thomson BSc CEng FICE, Chief Executive, ADA

ADA’s Chair and Chief Executive met with Flood Minister Emma Hardy and attended the first meeting of the Floods Resilience Taskforce.

The second week in September was a busy one for ADA, in meetings with both Floods Minister, Emma Hardy MP, and Environment Secretary of State, Steve Reed MP. The private meeting between ADA’s Chair, Robert Caudwell OBE and I with Minister Hardy focused primarily on our members’ desire for a better balance of funding for the routine maintenance and management of our existing flood risk assets, systems, and watercourses.

We also talked about the legislative changes necessary to assist IDBs with their work and ADA was confident of continued government support for the draft Statutory Instrument: The English Drainage Boards (Alternative Valuation Calculation) Regulations 2024, which is expected to be laid before Parliament this autumn.

Minister Hardy also listened to ADA’s call for IDBs to be better recognised for their role as water resource managers, retaining water safely to help enhance our environment and support productive agriculture. Both the Minister and ADA recognise that it will likely require primary legislation to underpin this transition, which would take time. Minister Hardy also said that for the Tranche 2 flood recovery funding, the final decision was with the Secretary of State amid the ongoing wider review of Government funding.

Robert and I were also pleased to be invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the government’s new Flood Resilience Taskforce chaired by the Secretary of State, Steve Reed with welcome attendance by three Ministers from Defra, MHCLG, and the Cabinet Office. Relevant top-level civil servants, local authority officers, RFCC chairs, the Environment Agency, Met Office, and emergency service chiefs were also present along with senior staff from each of the devolved governments.

The Met Office and Flood Forecasting Centre began by telling the group that there was a higher probability of unsettled weather this autumn than normal. Local Resilience Forum and Emergency Service Chiefs went on to assure the Task Force that local plans were robust and in place to deal with future events this winter.

The Environment Agency presented maps showing that high-risk flood risk assets over the large majority of the country were below the desired condition target level, as highlighted in The Observer. ADA challenged the information, cautioning that the Task Force needs to see the complete picture of all flood risk assets, not just the high risk ones. The Task Force will also need to know more detail about the target condition set by the Environment Agency in order to be able to take an informed view of those targets.

Concerns were voiced about resource pressures and the need for more community engagement, with better support to make them more resilient to flooding. Defra Director for Floods & Water, Sebastian Catovski, summarised the main points for further government consideration at the end of the meeting, covering:

• the sensitivity of river catchments to flood risk,
• sharing of information between flood risk partners,
• flood warnings and public awareness,
• the need to improve the condition of flood risk management assets.

The Secretary of State concluded the meeting, emphasising that the next meeting in January 2025 would focus on longer-term thinking. ADA will be putting forward agenda items to discuss planning and building regulations, and adjustments to the Bellwin scheme of emergency financial assistance to better support local authorities and IDBs in the aftermath of significant flood events.

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