Holly Lynch: Please don't forget Halifax and Calder Valley over flooding clean-up

I thank the Government for their announcement that £5.5m will be made available for the rebuilding of Elland Bridge – discussion now moves from funding to the speed with which we can get it back up and running. Partly due to the bridge’s status as a Grade II listed building, it is estimated that a replacement bridge will not be in place until December.

Elland Bridge will not be the only damaged structure with listed building status. Although, as a history graduate, I appreciate the significance of listed buildings in principle, where a listed structure is no longer fit for its intended purpose and, conversely, presents a danger to the public, what power do the Government have to work with Historic England to consider lifting that status, thereby giving local authorities, or in this instance, the Canal & River Trust, the greatest range of options for reconnecting communities as quickly as possible? I hope Ministers will consider looking into that.

Although the £5.5m is extremely welcome, new problems are arising on an almost daily basis. New landslips are compounding the existing damage. The combined cost of damage to infrastructure as a result of that weaponised river and the broader impact of Storm Eva – just to be clear, this excludes the money allocated for Elland Bridge – is now in the region of £18.5m.

I hope Ministers recognise that Calderdale Council will need support to cope with the scale of damage to infrastructure and that constructive dialogue on how to do that will follow.

On where some of that money might come from, like many of my colleagues and constituents, I am confused as to why the Government have not yet applied to the EU solidarity fund for financial support. The Prime Minister said that he had looked carefully at the question of EU funding but decided that it was “quicker and better” to give the people the help they need from our own resources. I ask the Government to think again.

I visited several businesses in Sowerby Bridge immediately after the floods. Some are big employers that have never flooded before, but the cost and devastation caused by flooding just once means that they are thinking long and hard about whether they want to rebuild in the same premises or to leave the valley altogether.

I met small and medium-sized enterprises that had struggled to find affordable insurance due to their proximity to the river. At least one of the bigger businesses that I visited had business interruption insurance, but it is anxious about whether that same protection would still be available at an affordable price if it were to rebuild in the same location.

Pulman Steel, a business in Sowerby Bridge that was visited by the Chancellor twice in the run-up to the 2010 and 2015 General Elections, is faced with completely refitting its factory.

I have written to the Chancellor inviting him on a return visit to Pulman Steel. He will be aware that Pulman Steel is a supplier to a number of key Northern Powerhouse infrastructure projects, so it is of strategic importance to the North and beyond that it is up and running. I ask the Chancellor to put his high-vis and his hard hat back on and to come and discuss with Pulman Steel how its situation has changed and what his team could be doing to support it as a key player in our local economy.

A shot-blasting company at Lee Bridge in Halifax and its neighbours were flooded three times in four weeks due to a complicated culvert system that runs underneath the small industrial estate. Calderdale Council has identified that 800 businesses, which employ 4,588 people, need financial support following the floods.

The grants of £2,500 from Government funding are going out to businesses and are making a difference, but businesses such as the ones I have mentioned need specialist business support – they need not only cash but expertise. They face dilemmas around how to hold on to customers while they deal with the impact of the floods.

The local authority can provide some of that support, but I echo Calderdale Council’s request to the Government that staff from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills get out to flood-affected areas and work with the Local Enterprise Partnerships to bolster the specialist business support.

On a pragmatic note, a proposal that I do not believe would cost a great deal is a national floods conference. It would be a meeting for all the affected local authorities to come together to discuss their experiences with the Government, but more importantly with one another. They could share best practice, and examine what worked and what did not work in terms of both flood defences and also the emergency response to the flooding.

* Holly Lynch is the Labour MP for Halifax who spoke in a Parliamentary debate on the floods. This is an edited version.