David Cameron is to visit flood-stricken areas in the north-west amid criticism of the defences that failed to keep water out of people’s homes and businesses.
The prime minister chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee on Monday morning, which looked at how to get immediate help for those affected by Storm Desmond and longer term efforts to get areas “back on their feet”.
Speaking before his visit, Cameron confirmed councils would be fully reimbursed for the costs of dealing with the floods under the usual Bellwin scheme, which provides emergency assistance to local authorities after flooding.
“First of all, our hearts must go out to families who have been driven out of their homes by flood water, many of whom will have had a very worrying 48 hours stuck in their homes and I think the emergency services have done a brilliant job,” he said. “What we must do now is make sure everything is done to help in this vital phase of dealing with the floods.
“Then there’s the vital recovery phase where we need to try and help people get their insurance claims and help people get back into their homes. We should sit down again with the Environment Agency and look at the flood schemes that have been built, look at the ones that are planned... and ask what can we do, what’s in the plan for the future and how does that need to change.”
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said after the Cobra meeting that the unprecedented water levels had led to flood defences being overtopped. “There was an agreement that the government should look again at the level of rainfall we have seen in the floods, and how that tallies with the flood defences,” she said
The unusual level of rainfall in places such as Honister in Cumbria was also stressed by Rory Stewart, an environment minister, who said: “When you face, as we have now, probably the highest rainfall we have ever had in the United Kingdom, it is going to come over the top of defences.
“But what the defences do is they slow it down, it gives us more time, it’s given people here more time to evacuate safely, and it’s meant that there’s less water on the streets than there would have been if we hadn’t had that defence in place.”
The government will be desperate for the flooding not to become a political crisis as happened in January 2014, when ministers were accused of not doing enough to help those on the Somerset Levels.
At the time of those floods, funding for defences became a major political issue with the government clashing with Labour about whether cash had been cut for investment in protection.
Spending on flood defences and coastal erosion is set to fall by 14% to £695m in 2015/16, after peaking last year following the last major set of floods. It is still above spending in most years since 2005, according to the latest figures from Defra.
Liz Truss, the environment secretary, will outline the government’s current plans for flood protection this winter to the Commons at 3.30pm on Monday, before heading to the north-west.
“The government’s priority now is to ensure that people are safe and to co-ordinate the response, restoring power and transport networks and ensuring that communities get access to the support they need,” she said.
“Flood defences protected 8,600 homes across the north of England and, in thousands of other instances, provided vital time for homes and businesses to be evacuated as well as reducing the impact. However, unprecedented rain and river levels mean we have seen water overtopping defences in places.
“Overnight, engineers have managed to restore power to thousands of homes, but many are still without electricity and I’d like to pay tribute to engineers who are working round the clock to get things back to normal, along with the emergency services and agencies who have been providing assistance across flooded areas.”
