My work on the Environmental Audit Committee

Another one of my Parliamentary duties are weekly sittings of the Environmental Audit Committee. 

The remit of the Committee is to consider the extent to which the policies and programmes of government departments and non-departmental public bodies contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development, and to audit their performance against sustainable development and environmental protection targets. 

Recently my colleagues on the Committee and I have been investigating flood resilience in England. Given the damage that Storm Bert brought wrought on us last November this is an issue that I have been very focused on. 

In this particular sitting the Committee was taking evidence from flood experts, community action groups and business owners affected by flooding. We had a very productive and fruitful discussion about how communities can insulate themselves from the worst dangers of flooding. 

I was able to bring my own experiences to the Committee and mentioned a great initiative in our area by the Bremhill Vales Farmers Group who, working with another group called BremZero, have been working in tandem with the Environment Agency on a project called Wiltshire Rural Run–Off. 

The project itself is looking into how landowners can mitigate flooding and slow it down to contain it to their own land. This significantly reduces flooding in the small urban areas surrounding the land and provides an invaluable service to the community at relatively low cost. 

Since this is a community-led initiative in the coming months I will be exploring with my colleagues on the Environmental Audit Committee how we can expand this project and empower communities to come together to protect themselves. 

I think most of you reading this will know from personal experience that when flooding such as we experienced last November happens it is easy to feel powerless. 

I am lobbying the Government to give greater support to local volunteer networks and flood groups, who are all too happy to use their experience and expertise in conjunction with national agencies, to serve and protect our areas. 

I was very pleased to see that the Government has now committed £7.9billion over ten years to protect homes, small businesses, and vital infrastructure from the growing threat of flooding. In the coming weeks I will be questioning Government Ministers as to how exactly they plan to implement these funds to protect areas like ours. 

In the meantime, as our inquiry continues, I will be scrutinising just how and where this money will be spent, and how it will reassure our community that their lives and their businesses will not be swept away from them. 

It is my sincerest hope that we can pull together to help our communities, our homes and our businesses to make sure that when this happens again, we are ready.