How to make Hull more flood resilient – Emma Hardy

Climate change is making these events more frequent but the Government response has been too slow. We already have the tools and the knowledge to improve the situation for people and businesses up and down the country: what we need now is action.

In 2007, I was a primary teacher in an infant school on the outskirts of Hull. It was already raining heavily as I drove to the school and, as the day continued, our school slowly started to flood.

Flooding started in the classroom at the top of the corridor, seeping in through the door at the rear of the classroom, and as it made its way from room to room, the children were moved into the school hall and parents were contacted with an urgent request to collect their child.

After my last school pupil had gone, I tried to set off for home but after driving around in circles to avoid the flood water, I abandoned my car and walked home.

The effects were profound 
and visible. Entire streets were lined with skips piled high with ripped up flooring, skirting boards, tangled electric cabling, carpets and lino. Ruined furniture sat in front gardens waiting removal. Later that night we learned that someone had lost their life.

Families had to find somewhere else to live overnight. Some of the children I taught were in caravans, others hotels. Nothing was geared up to cope – insurance claims and finding builders took months for some.

We were teaching classes in whatever spare spaces they had – library, hall, corridor – and with whatever resources we could borrow or had salvaged. The events left an indelible mark on those children.

I remember the following year, back in our building at last, when the first heavy rainstorm came. Normally, children are excited by the noise and the spectacle, but instead a deathly hush fell on the classroom.

Homes across England continue to be built in flood zones and the level of protection required for the individual properties and the development itself are left to local authorities to stipulate. Not only can this leave these developments without adequate protection, adjacent local authorities can have different requirements..

The councils of Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire chose to respond to the tragedy by creating a ground-breaking partnership Living With Water with the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water.

A great deal of work has been done with an extensive system of temporary lagoons constructed to prevent the flows of water we saw in 2007.

We also have in place stringent requirements for property protection, sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), and allowed run-off in any new developments. Hull does not have the luxury of avoiding building on flood plain, as only two per cent of the city is not at risk.

It would be a mistake to think of flooding as “someone else’s problem”. Flooding has continued to be a growing risk nationwide and the Committee for Climate Change has identified it as a major threat as the century progresses.

In the aftermath of 2007, insurance with flood cover became almost impossible to find for many. In response the Flood Re scheme was created, using a levy on all premiums to underwrite insurers for at-risk properties. While this helped many get affordable insurance, it did nothing to help prevent the damage and disruption to life re-occurring. It is only now that an affordable way of future-proofing flood affected properties is being put forward.

Flood Re are proposing a ‘Build Back Better’ scheme to allow the payment of claims to include an additional amount for resilient or resistant repair beyond the original damage. But it is not compulsory. Insurers can choose to offer it or not.

It is time for the Government to get a grip, and it is why I presented my 10-minute Rule Bill Flooding (Prevention and Insurance) in November last year.

We cannot allow properties to continue to be built with ineffective flood prevention or mitigations in place.

We cannot allow flood damaged houses to be repaired with no more protection than they had originally. We cannot let developments continue to go ahead with no improvements to the existing sewerage systems they will use. We need homes fit for the future and that has to start now.

Emma Hardy is Labour MP 
for Hull West and Hessle.

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