Speeches by Heylings.

“At the moment, we don’t actually know?”

“I heard what you were saying about the Dutch example in the Netherlands where they have resilient standards. By “standards”, do I understand you to mean this is the protection that is necessary across different areas and the standards at which it should be, therefore we can calculate the costs for that? Therefore, the …”

“It is sobering to hear your analysis—climate change undeniably increasing the intensity and the frequency of the risk of flooding. We have heard about the damage to businesses and households. In my constituency in South Cambridgeshire, it is also hitting farming. Last year, a farmer at Huntingdon Farm in Sawston said t…”

“I was working in Columbia when they had the massive flooding at the estuary there and four years later the communities were still living in refugee camps. When they took the research that they did on families that survived as family units after those four years it was because of their social networks before that. They …”

“Strengthening of catchment perhaps in general in terms of planning but also between those different areas, whether the coastal or the catchment that is needed. Finally, Chair, if you do not mind, I am hearing that social capital that you have been talking about and a recommendation there is that we are involving differ…”

“Not having one impact the other, which is what you have been talking about, particularly on the coastal area.”

“Would a recommendation here be that there be strengthening of catchment planning?”

“Dr Sayers?”

“Do you think that the Land Use Framework is something that enables you to look at those conflicts and to start planning?”

“Can I ask the other panellists as well? We have the Land Use Framework, we have also got local nature recovery strategies, which are then sort of from the bottom up, again without a material weight in planning but they do look at how nature could play a role in terms of adaptation.”

“I would like to pick up both that last comment and the comment about planning and the systems approach. The planning system is through local plans, and there might even be wider areas. Even if we are going to the combined authorities, the strategic unitary authorities, there will be wider regional but there is nothing …”

“The reason I am asking, Chair, is because it brings us back to the funding. We are paying the cost for not having planned up front in that way. Q26            Cameron Thomas: Thank you for stating out loud the impacts on mental health of people that are regularly a…”

“We are also looking at the house building targets, so this is something that we absolutely need to ensure has been taken on board with increasing climate risks but, as you say, with increasing house building, what impacts will that have on our ability to have those green or blue spaces, or our ability to manage water a…”

“Just on that, the example then, also from the Netherlands, is there anything else that you think we should be looking at? We will have a visit, so it is interesting to know. Is there anything in your opinion we should be looking at, as well as the resilience standards and the plan that is in place? Any other things tha…”

“That social capital that is there is absolutely critical. It is very interesting that, following covid, police forces around the country are building on those neighbourhood groups that were helping each other. They are calling them community resilience groups, but they are not talking about the kind of resilience we ar…”

“We did talk about vulnerability, and you were mentioning the level of households. In what way do you think that we are able to provide those most vulnerable with some of the protection that is needed?”

“Within what is being given at the moment, with the Environment Agency, within that funding, saying that it is less able now to invest in the same number of projects as it was, do you think that more could be done to adequately resource the Environment Agency for its role and its tasks?”

“You are making us ask an even bigger, almost existential question, which is: we do not know how much we should be spending because we have not had the national debate and set the target for the country.”

“At the moment, we don’t actually know?”

“I heard what you were saying about the Dutch example in the Netherlands where they have resilient standards. By “standards”, do I understand you to mean this is the protection that is necessary across different areas and the standards at which it should be, therefore we can calculate the costs for that? Therefore, the …”