Mayor challenges PM to honour his promises to flooding victims

SHEFFIELD CITY Region mayor Dan Jarvis today challenges the Government to honour its commitments to the county’s flooding victims.

Writing in The Yorkshire Post, the senior Labour politician says investing now in flood defences can support the region’s economy as it attempts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

And, in a letter sent to Rebecca Pow, the Environment Minister with responsibility for flooding, he again challenges Defra to set a date for the round table talks that Boris Johnson first promised when the Prime Minister visited the flood-hit Don Valley last November.

Those floods wrecked 1,000 homes and affected 560 businesses. Many families have been unable to return home while they wait for their properties to be repaired.

The mayor’s intervention comes a day after a report warned that 14,000 businesses were at risk in South Yorkshire as a consequence of Covid-19, and that £4bn could be wiped from the value of its economy.

“Accelerating the delivery of this funding would provide vital protection to many homes, families and businesses, help us adapt to our changing climate and act as a crucial economic stimulus in response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Mr Jarvis.

“It is urgent that we do everything we can to stop devastating floods hitting again. We cannot let the people of South Yorkshire down. Intelligent flood prevention work is exactly the sort of spending we should be doing in response to this crisis. We have to make sure the major public spending that is so obviously needed to help keep the economy afloat actually produces some long-term good. We can aim so much higher than just returning to the status quo.

“Now is exactly the time to put people to work on transforming our region and our economy. We have to build back better – and what better way than ensuring we never see the devastation caused by these floods again.”

However Mr Jarvis remains frustrated that it has not been possible to bring key bodies together to form a flooding strategy for the North, including Calderdale which suffered catastrophic damage in February.

Mr Jarvis, who made clear that

he welcomes the decision to double the amount of Government investment into flood defences to £5.2bn from 2021, stressed: “The Government is rightly focusing much of its energy on the Covid-19 crisis, but the Government has to follow through on their commitments.

“It is now seven months since the Prime Minister promised to hold a flooding summit so we can take more coordinated and effective action. The clock is ticking.

“We need to do this in a way which reflects local priorities and concerns and helps our local economy and environment. Approaches like Natural Flood Management and a major treeplanting programme will not only reduce our flood risks but create jobs.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We understand the heartbreak, devastation and disruption faced by communities when flooding hits and we are committed to making the country as resilient to flooding as possible.

“This is why we have already built 59 new flood defences in Yorkshire since 2015, better protecting 13,200 homes, and nationally we have doubled our investment to £5.2bn over the next six years to better protect 336,000 properties. We will continue to work with local leaders and communities across Yorkshire to reduce the risks of flooding to as many people as possible.”

THE CORONAVIRUS crisis has brought out the best of our South Yorkshire spirit.

The people who have been collecting shopping and medicines for those who are shielding. The volunteers who have produced PPE for the frontline. The pub landlord who has cooked hundreds of meals for vulnerable residents.

Everywhere, the extraordinary character that exemplifies our coalfield communities has shone through.

It’s the same community spirit that I saw in abundance during the floods last November.

Across South Yorkshire, our communities were under water. In response, we did what we do best – rallied around and supported those in need.

But even now, there are some residents who have not been able to return to their homes, who lost their possessions, who live in a state of constant anxiety about what next winter will bring.

I’ve been fighting for these communities both as MP for Barnsley Central and as the Mayor of the Sheffield City Region.

We’ve developed a plan for flood prevention measures worth more than £270m that would protect 10,300 homes and 2,800 businesses – saving an estimated £1.7 billion just in direct damages avoided.

I’ve pushed for an emergency flooding summit to bring together local authorities, central government, the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and flood management experts to formulate a plan for flood defences in South Yorkshire.

And I’ve asked the Environment Agency to take active measures to reduce flooding risk, like dredging canals.

Of course, it’s not just a problem for South Yorkshire. Many parts of Yorkshire – and indeed the whole country – have suffered immensely from floods in recent years, most recently this March.

That increase is consistent with the predicted impacts of climate change. The very local problems we face in the Don river valley are inextricably linked to much wider issues, and our response must reflect this.

We’ve heard warm words from the Government. In the Spring Budget, the Chancellor pledged over £5bn to improve the country’s flood defences. It’s a welcome move, and I’m campaigning for our region to get its fair share of that funding.

But, so far, we’ve seen neither the detail nor the followup commitments needed to translate this pledge into practice. Time and again in Parliament, I’ve asked the Government to hold the summit the Prime Minister promised. I completely understand why so much energy is being directed at the coronavirus crisis, but he must stick to his word.

When we come to the practical actions needed to rise to the challenge of flooding, we must do far more than provide sandbags when the riverbanks burst. We need a bold and creative response, that integrates flood prevention and defences into our policies at every level, from the local to the global.

This means ensuring that flood mitigation better informs the planning process when it comes to where houses and businesses are built, so we work with nature, not against it.

It means an approach which looks at the whole watershed and seeks to manage it as naturally as possible. It means a major tree-planting strategy to reduce the risk of floods – and improve our neighbourhoods and create natural habitats in the process.

It means putting sustainability and tackling the climate emergency at the heart of our future economic plans, so we address the global factors driving our local floods. It means

We need to do things differently. And there is no better time than now.

giving Metro Mayors and local authorities additional powers to deliver flood mitigation in their areas, to make our response more targeted and effective.

Crucially though, there is a direct link here to the Covid-19 response. We desperately need to create jobs and invest in infrastructure to counter the damage the disease has caused and will cause to our society and our economy.

Increasing and accelerating work on flood prevention can help provide those jobs – while ensuring that the public investment we so badly need produces some long-lasting good.

I’ve written extensively about how we can rebuild our businesses and communities after coronavirus. But returning to a failed status quo is just not good enough: we must seize the opportunity to renew our economy and society, to build a fairer, more equal country. And that applies to flooding too.

We need to do things differently. And there is no better time than now.