Stuart Anderson MP calls on government to reform flooding recovery framework
Stuart Anderson MP has called on the government to improve support for local communities impacted by flooding. He has said the current mechanism needs to be updated to better help rural communities.
Stuart’s call came as research shows last year’s floods led to a 19% drop in income from farming, equivalent to £1.1 billion. The effect has been an increase in food prices for first time in 17 months. The British Retail Consortium added that further inflationary pressures could be “lurking just over the horizon”, partly triggered by more flooding due in the months ahead.
The Flood Recovery Framework was set up by the previous government in 2017 to support households and businesses impacted by severe flooding. The years since have seen worsened flooding and Stuart has said that the Framework needs reviewing to recognise the particular challenges faced by rural communities in the aftermath of localised flooding events.
Under the current framework, support is activated only once the local authority has reported internal flooding at a defined number of properties. Before changes made by the last government, this stood at 25 residential properties. Following the changes, it now stands at 50 properties and can include both business and residential addresses within the local authority area. Yet, in areas where the threshold is not met, local authorities are often left to front the costs of recovery efforts themselves.
While Stuart welcomed the reforms, he has said further changes are now needed to better support properties including public houses in rural areas which are often located at a distance from each other. Stuart added that the framework excludes local authorities where flooding occurs across several boundaries as part of a river system or a catchment area or, in the case of farmers, where the flooded land is not contiguous to an eligible river.
Stuart has confirmed that he has now written to the Minister for Water and Flooding to relay these concerns and to call for a review of the Framework. He also explained how some householders can be reluctant to report a flooding incident due to its possible impact on their insurability. In other cases, businesses may have already used their insurance after previous floods.
Stuart Anderson MP said:
“Last year’s floods cost farmers over £1 billion of their income and, without intervention, could result in further pressures pushing up food prices in the future. So I have called on the government to intervene by ensuring businesses and households in rural areas like ours in South Shropshire can more swiftly access the support they need to recover from flooding. If the government does not step in to reform and expand the flooding recovery framework, my constituents in South Shropshire are worried that they may not be able to withstand further flooding. If they are forced to close shop, this would have a devastating impact on local jobs and the wider rural economy.“
