On Friday 27th September, Floods Minister Emma Hardy and Environment Agency Chief Executive Philip Duffy have met to discuss response to the flooding experienced by the country in the past week.

During the meeting, the Minister received a briefing on the latest situation on the ground and together they discussed how to bolster the response from the Environment Agency, emergency services and local authorities.

This comes as earlier last week, the Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed and Emma Hardy separately visited communities in Northampton and Leighton Buzzard, to assess the response with agencies on the ground and offer their sympathies to flooded residents. 

It follows the Met Office confirming that more than double the average amount of rainfall for September falling in a matter of days, leaving surface water and river flooding affecting large counties such as Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Shropshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. The heavy rain and thunderstorms have led to around 650 properties being flooded. However, the Environment Agency estimates that at least 8,200 have been protected. Over 60,000 properties received flood warnings over the past week.

The Government says it is working at pace to step up further preparations for the winter. Lessons learned from these floods are being fed directly into the new Floods Resilience Taskforce to speed up the development of flood defences and bolster the nation’s resilience to extreme weather. The Taskforce brings together the Secretary of State and Minister Hardy with representatives from Defra, MHCLG, Home Office, Cabinet Office, the Environment Agency, the Met Office, Local Resilience Forums, Mayoral Offices, emergency responders and the National Farmers Union, among others.

Floods Minister Emma Hardy said:

“These floods have devastated communities, homes, businesses, and livelihoods. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected.

“I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the vital work that the Environment Agency and emergency services are doing to keep people safe.

“But more must be done to protect people and their homes. That is why the Government is working at pace to accelerate the building of flood defences through our new Floods Resilience Taskforce.”

Chief Executive Philip Duffy said:

“My thoughts are with the people affected, and we will continue to do what we can to help with their flood recovery, and I want to thank teams from the Environment Agency and our partners for their tireless efforts this week.

“With a wet autumn forecast, we are redoubling efforts to repair and maintain our flood defences and work with communities across the country to prepare for more wet weather.”

Environment Agency teams remain on the ground across the country, checking flood defences, erecting temporary barriers, clearing blockages in storm drains and supporting local authorities in their response work.

The Environment Agency has 250 high volume pumps either in action or on standby at strategic locations across the UK. They have also stepped up the maintenance of flood assets – with 216,000 checks on 75,000 flood assets conducted in the past year which is an increase from 150,000 in an average year.