Speeches by Hardy.

“The previous Government had a straightforward funding formula based on numbers of properties protected. The difficulty with that particular formula is it made it hard for natural flood management, because it was hard to evidence that you had moved from one risk band to another. If you put a wall up or you do an enginee…”

“The consultation—and, as I say, it is a consultation at the moment—is on looking to fully fund the first £3 million. Lots of smaller projects that are happening up and down the country, under the current system, have to find partnership funding. It is quite difficult to find partnership funding for smaller projects, es…”

“We will consider those major projects separately to the rest of the flood budget and the rest of the projects that we are looking at. When you are looking at what is happening with what would need to be done with the Thames, you are talking billions. They need to be considered away from the rest of the budget that we a…”

“Anything that we do has to be value for money. Ultimately, flood protection is about lives and livelihoods. Of course, you have to look at the numbers of properties protected. I am saying that the numbers of properties protected cannot be the only measurement that we use. To be fair, lots of the big flood defences for …”

“No, this is genuinely about me looking at the best way to do this. You are right, this piece of legislation was written 15 years ago. It is right that we look at the best way to do this now. Are we looking at doing it with partnership projects? As I say, water companies are hugely interested in this because it helps th…”

“We are investing a record amount of money, the most money that has ever been invested by any Government into flood defences. We are investing £2.65 billion over the next two years. We have put money into maintenance, the most money, again, that has ever been put into maintenance. We are investing £4.2 billion over the …”

“The short answer is that you can either enact schedule 3 or you can achieve the same outcome in a different way. We are genuinely looking at whether the same outcome could be achieved for SuDS rather than enacting schedule 3. I have been a huge fan of SuDS for a long time, recognising how crucially important they are, …”

“No.”

“Whatever we decide to do with flood funding has to be about value for money. It cannot be down to my individual thoughts on what is right and wrong. This is why, honestly, the consultation matters so much. Yes, I would like to see more natural flood management. I am quite clear about that. Of course we need to be think…”

“I have a huge amount of respect for Flooded People UK and the trauma that they faced as a flooded community. I am interested to talk to them about their experiences and how we can better support people recovering from flooding. However, do I stand by the figures we are using? Absolutely.”

“What is the phrase? You might say that but I could not possibly comment.”

“On planning for flooding?”

“It is definitely true to say that most of the people who I have seen involved tend to be retired people who have the time, and of course it is easier to think about the constituencies that we represent and the people there not having the time to be able to involve themselves in that. You are right on that, which is why…”

“We do not want to be having the same conversation about the same problems. Some of the problems about warning and informing will not be solved in a matter of months. It will constantly need to be developed and refined and improved. We need that cycle of continuous improvement. If we are going to build our country’s res…”

“Yes, I agree with you. As I was saying, at the moment people can look at this NaFRA2 document. It is publicly available. They can put in their postcode and find out the exact flood risk for their property. That information is now available. It came out at the end of March. People can put it in and they can see what lev…”

“For example, if we were to put in a new flood defence somewhere, it would be shown through the modelling to reduce the risk for that area. The EA has done an important piece of work there.”

“Yes, which is why I am saying the evidence that we have had from the Environment Agency is so important. If you are going to set a baseline for how many properties are at risk, that is what it is mapping. What it has done is crucial. As I said, previously that did not include surface water risk. Some people are saying …”

“Forty-three were implemented, 40 were implemented with work ongoing in 2012, six were ongoing with work on track, and only one was not completely implemented or taken forward.”

“I am happy to go away and see if we can work that out for you because we would have to reset the baseline based on the new mapping and the evidence that we have. Otherwise, you would be comparing apples and pears because we have never before measured the risk of surface water flooding. If you take the surface water flo…”

“As Phil mentioned, you are quite right, the Pitt review said that there should be an overview role. The Environment Agency was given that strategic overview role over all the different types of flooding. The EA interacts with all the different bodies that are responsible for looking at flooding. As Phil mentioned, they…”