Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1. The purpose of this paper is to set out the key legislative changes, how they are likely to impact on the Council and the Council's response to the consultation. The Council broadly welcomes the new legislation because it clarifies roles and sets out clear lines of responsibility and duties to provide a focus on flood risk management, which follows on from recent flood events and anticipates the impacts of predicted climate change.

1.2. The key recommendation within the draft Bill, to establish this Council as the `lead authority' taking the lead role on flood risk management in Hampshire, is strongly supported.

1.3. The consultation includes a list of 188 questions and the consultation runs to 24 July 2009.

2. Background to the Draft Flood and Water Management Bill

2.1. Following the extensive nationwide flooding of 2007, Sir Michael Pitt's review "Learning the lessons from the 2007 floods" was accepted by Government and forms the basis of the new legislation. The draft Bill will create a more comprehensive risk-based regime for managing flood risk from all sources of flooding. Hitherto flood risk management, particularly associated with surface water and groundwater flooding, has been ad-hoc, with confused and complex lines of responsibility between authorities without an integrated approach to the management of these risks. The new Bill will address this and has enshrined the key themes of security, service and sustainability and sets out changes to the law to deliver these key themes. A framework approach outlines responsibilities for flood risk management to promote the organisation changes required to deliver the objectives.

3. The Key Recommendations of the Bill

3.1. The Bill is comprehensive and the consultation covers some 188 questions covering the wide-ranging extent of the Bill. However, to streamline the process, only the key parts of the new Bill as they relate to the Council are set out below:

4. Funding Structure and Levy

4.1. Currently the Environment Agency obtains funding from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs through grant aid but also from a combination of local levies and from internal drainage board fund raising powers (none in Hampshire). The Bill proposes that only the County Council and District Authorities should be funded for local risk management and has asked for comment on this.

5. Response to the Consultation

General

5.1. The measures proposed align well with the aims of the Council and link with the progress that the Council has already made in developing flood risk management. The Council's progress has, however, been hampered by the complex relationships and confused division of responsibilities on matters relating to drainage and the management of water and flooding. This Bill helps to clarify roles and responsibilities and duties. The Council welcomes its role as the lead authority to coordinate and manage flood risk. The Bill is supported because it will provide better management and control and affords an opportunity to provide appropriate decision making structures to deliver the objectives. The implementation of the new measures will require appropriate resourcing and funding and it is vital that this is in place at the outset to ensure that appropriate progress is made.

5.2. The Government's impact assessment shows that the implementation and setting up of the new requirements should be cost neutral because authorities will save money on their emergency planning response and any subsequent restoration work. This is based on a cost benefit analysis covering all authorities and the long term impacts. This figure is hard to reconcile and clearly significant funding will be required for lead authorities in the initial stages to set up structures, assess network capacity, develop flood risk mapping and prepare and then implement surface water management plans. Sir Michael Pitt estimated at least £100,000 for each authority to develop surface water management plans alone. It is suggested that this figure is an underestimate. This Council has earmarked at least that sum to progress the first phase of flood risk management. It is hoped that the feedback from authorities funded to prepare first round surface water management plans will give a guide relating to the set-up costs.

5.3. The Bellwin formula is set out to assist authorities in their emergency response to unforeseen events which are usually weather-related, and is to deal with any event and immediate aftermath. The funds are not for restoration or rebuilding following an unforeseen event.

5.4. The funding formula is set at 0.2% of the authority's total revenue budget, so for example with a budget of over £1 billion the spend trigger level of £2 million would be required. This level of spend is unlikely in Hampshire for most weather related events.

Sustainable Drainage Systems

5.5. The Council will take on the ownership of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and, whilst it is helpful to set out clearly the ownership, there are certain features, such as very large balancing ponds remote from the highway, that are outside the Council's realm and may fit better into the civic or amenity realm ownership of the district authority. It would be helpful that the measures provide some flexibility in this respect. The impact assessment says that this element will be cost neutral but again this is hard to reconcile.

Implications and Impact for Hampshire

5.6. The Council is keen to consolidate its leadership role within Hampshire to facilitate other partners and authorities in developing a fully integrated approach to flood risk management outlined in the Bill. The Council is currently focussing on engagement with other partners and its internal structure to ensure the delivery of the longer term strategic objectives and operational objectives over agreed timeframes. It is working closely with the Environment Agency on this. The remit of the groups that have been established both cover the response to flooding events and identify flood risk priorities to develop adaptation and mitigation strategies. A management team has also been set up within the Council to oversee and drive the process forward. Through the Local Flood Resilience Forum, the initial actions set out in Sir Michael Pitt's report "Learning the lesson from the 2007 floods" and agreed by Government have been completed, with a lead from the Emergency Planning Officer and input from the Environment Department and other partners. This provides a platform to progress to the implementation of the new legislation when sanctioned.

5.7. The Council learnt much from the serious groundwater flooding of 2000/01 and has been active in developing a flood risk management and response to flood events, particularly related to groundwater flooding. A significant amount of work has been done in partnership with the Environment Agency and others. The Council is well placed to develop and implement the main requirements of the new Bill.

5.8. A total of £130,000 has been earmarked from the 2009/10 highway maintenance budget to implement the first phase of flood risk management planning, and work is planned and underway to map drainage assets, identify highway related flood risks and develop surface water management plans. Related funding levels are anticipated over the four year implementation plan set out in the Bill guidance. In addition, funding of £500,000 from the highway maintenance budget has been earmarked for projects to mitigate highway related flood risk.

5.9. The Council will have the additional duty of managing works on water courses with powers to undertake emergency works and approve works. Whilst this will help with flood risk management, many water courses are remote from the highway and will require additional resource to accommodate this duty.

6. Finance

6.1. 2009/10 highway revenue budget: provision of £130,000 for the assessment phase.

6.2. 2009/10 highway revenue budget: £500,000 for highway related flood mitigation projects.

6.3. 2010-2013 budget provision to be agreed as part of budget planning process.

7. Recommendations

7.1. That the Council responds to the consultation on the draft Flood and Water Management Bill on the basis set out in the report at 3.1.

7.2. That the Council broadly endorses the new proposals insofar as they clarify roles and responsibilities related to flood risk management but seeks a more robust assessment of the financial and resource implications for Councils.

7.3. That the Council actively prepares itself for the implementation of the new legislation and strengthens its Flood Risk Management functions to consider the impact in the 2010/11 budget in due course.

2065Rpt/763/KF

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1. Not applicable.

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1. Not applicable.

3. Climate Change:

a) How does what is being proposed impact on our carbon footprint / energy consumption?

The new Bill will enable more sustainable drainage and lessen flood risk to help reduce the carbon footprint and energy consumption.

b) How does what is being proposed consider the need to adapt to climate change, and be resilient to its longer term impacts?

Adaptation and mitigation of flood risk is a fundamental feature of the new Bill.