What the commentators said
The “human calamity” is clear – homes and livelihoods are ruined, said Oliver Duff in the I newspaper. But it’s no surprise; cash-strapped councils have been building on unsuitable land for years. Between 2001 and 2014 alone, 250,000 new homes (12% of our new housing stock) were built in areas susceptible to flooding, leaving residents “at the mercy of Britain’s famously grim winter weather”. The floods are “not acts of God”, said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. They are “acts of government, preventable by upland river management and lowland common sense”. After Cockermouth in Cumbria flooded in 2009, the National Trust slowed run-off from hills despite opposition from farmers, who prefer land to be well drained for grazing; the disaster hasn’t been repeated. The Government, though, prefers headline-grabbing ploys like the £1.2bn Met Office “supercomputer” announced this week.
Storms are “toxic” for ministers, said Jamie Blackett in The Daily Telegraph; David Cameron once said that he sacked his environment secretary, Owen Paterson, because he “had a bad flood”. So for the incumbent, George Eustice, to say he’s “happy” with our defences was “shockingly insensitive”. Officials blame climate change, said Ross Clark in the Daily Mail; but it’s no excuse. The real problem is paltry spending on flood defences; last year’s £815m was a tenth of the subsidies handed out for renewable energy sources. It’s time defences were made “top priority”. Climate change is certainly making storms more extreme, said Emma Gatten in The Daily Telegraph; and worse is to come. Some 5.2 million homes in England are at risk of flooding – a number that will double if warming continues at current rates. The scale of the problem is clear – and Britain isn’t prepared.
What next?
The Government unlocked emergency funding for victims; flood-hit households and businesses can apply for grants to make them more resilient in future, and tax breaks to ease the immediate burden.
The Government had promised £2.6bn for flood defence schemes in England in the six years up to 2021, to “better protect” 300,000 homes. A total of £4bn has been pledged for flood defences between now and 2026.