Speeches by Hardy.

“The right hon. Gentleman is always welcome to urge me to do many things. His proposal on how the Environment Agency works with local parishes is an interesting one, and I would be happy to hear more of his thoughts on it. To reassure people about new homes, we have committed to building more high-quality, well-designed…”

“Again, my hon. Friend is right to point out how devastating flooding is. I would of course be happy to meet him and discuss the situation in his constituency, but just to reassure him, we will spend £2.4 billion in the next two years to strengthen, improve and maintain our flood defences.”

“The right hon. Lady is right that we need a combination of things to deal with flooding. There is a concern around the canal, which I am aware of and am grateful for her mentioning it, but it is important to look at lots of different things, including clearing out culverts and drains where appropriate. Many things need…”

“Hearing the news that anybody has lost their life in a flood event is truly devastating, and my sympathies are with the family and loved ones of those victims. My hon. Friend is right to point out the importance of delivering on the promise to build flood defences and to highlight that poor maintenance of flood defence…”

“I just mentioned in response to the shadow Minister that we should be able to announce which schemes have been successful by next month at the latest. If the hon. Gentleman writes to me with more information, I can give him a more detailed response on the scheme he mentions, but I recognise how important many of the sc…”

“I share my hon. Friend’s thanks to the Environment Agency. It does an incredible job and was out there working new year’s eve and new year’s day—not celebrating like many of us, but out helping and supporting. I am pleased to hear that positive story from her constituency.”

“The hon. Lady is right to point out the impact on people’s mental health. I urge her to invite communities that experience repeated flooding to look at the Build Back Better scheme. They could be able to access an extra £10,000 to make their homes more resilient to flooding. As I said, this is something that I care dee…”

“I am really sorry to hear about the hon. Lady’s constituents facing such an incredibly unfair situation for anybody to have to deal with. That is why the fact that sustainable drainage systems and schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 that we brought in were never enacted is so important, and that is wh…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The previous Government left flood defences in a state of disrepair—the worst state on record—leaving 60,000 homes exposed. That is why this Government will invest £2.4 billion into defences over the next two years.”

“I share the hon. Gentleman’s upset about the rules on housing and flooding not being implemented by the previous Government. We need more sustainable urban drainage in more developments, and it is important that it is built into planning applications to begin with. If he would like to contact me, I can look into the ma…”

“There is a very easy and short answer to that: I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend.”

“Each time I come here for questions, I promise that I will not arrange to meet as many Members, and each time I fail. I would of course be happy to meet my hon. Friend.”

“Mr Speaker, merry Christmas to you and all your staff. I put on the record my sympathy with everyone affected by water outages in Southampton; I discussed the matter with the chief executive officer yesterday. We will have a public consultation in the new year on the formula that allocates flood defence funding, to ens…”

“I would be delighted to work with my hon. Friend on this important issue. The Association of Drainage Authorities is on the flood resilience taskforce, and the statutory instrument will be laid as soon as parliamentary time allows.”

“Dredging can be a useful option for managing flood risk, usually as part of a wider approach, where it is technically effective, cost- effective and does not significantly increase flood risk for others. Of course, we need to adopt the best solution for each place.”

“The Government recognise the awful impact that flooding has had on the farming community. We are releasing £60 million via the farming recovery fund to support farmers impacted by last year’s severe weather—£10 million more than was planned by the previous Government—and £55.7 million has been paid out to over 12,700 f…”

“As I have mentioned, this is an important issue, and I look forward to discussing it in more detail. Work to assess the risks of PFAS, and to inform policy and regulatory approaches—including banning or highly restricting certain chemicals and addressing issues caused by their historical use—is continuing. The nature o…”

“I thank the hon. Lady for raising this important issue. The Drinking Water Inspectorate requires water companies to monitor, assess and report on the risks from PFAS. We are aware of concerns relating to that, and officials are working on it.”

“I thank all flood action groups around the country for doing incredible work for their communities. That sounds like a brilliant example. As I mentioned, we are investing £2.4 billion over the next couple of years. I hope to be able to give more detail in the new year.”

“Dredging used to be commonplace, but some evidence shows that it can speed up flow and potentially increase the risk of flooding downstream. There are currently no plans for any further dredging in Boston and Skegness, but I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and the EA area manager to discuss this further.”