Hilary Been and Hazel Blears have both had a go in the Commons to reassure people that all is for the best in the best possible of worlds, despite the large number of homes that have been flooded in the last few weeks.

??When I asked why??so many of????the Environment Agency’s Flood defences were in an unsatisfactory condition (EA Report for last year), Hilary Been denied it and Hazel Blears ignored it. Getting out and about in the flooded areas has, however, brought home to Ministers that there is a problem. The trouble is, they are still in denial about solving it for the future. The spin line is that the weather of the last few weeks in both quite unprecedented and not likely to recur.

??It does rain during most Wimbledon fortnights, but not usually as much as this year. However, such heavy rainfall is quite possible to imagine one Octover or November, or some other month at random given the unreliability of English weather. The government needs to start planning now to ensure we are better prepared next time it rains as much or next time the wind and waves blow strongly around our coasts.

??The government should

1. Instruct the Environment Agency to maintain its current defences to a satisfactory standard or better as a matter of course. The present Head of the Agency should be removed for the present failures of our flood defences.

2. With the EA the government should draw up a list of priority capital schemes to increase the capacity of watercourses and main storm drains to handle substantial rainfall.

3. The government with the EA should draw up plans with farmers to use specified fields for surplus water that would otherwise flood buildings.

4. The governemnt should regard finding private finance and construction for a better Thames flood defence, further out of the centre than the present barrier, as a crucial priority. Private funding could be attracted by linking the poject to planning permission for more development east of London, and to relcaiming land from the estuary for construction.The whole Thames Gateway project needs protection, as well as central London needing better protection soon than the current barrier can supply.

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