Toby Perkins' question to the Flooding Minister - 06/02/25 - video Dailymotion

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins presses the constituency's case for flood defence funding.

Transcript

00:00Toby Perkins, Chair of the Environment Board Thank you very much Mr Speaker. My Honourable

00:06Friend and the Secretary of State deserve great credit for attracting the large investment

00:11that has come. But once they've finished the lap of honour, they will be aware that this

00:16is literally just the first step up the mountain. She's absolutely right that the Government

00:20have inherited flood defences in an appalling state. The latest estimates are that as many

00:25as six million houses are at risk of flooding. I also call on her to get on with the flood

00:31improvements we demand in Chesterfield. But can she tell us more about how she's going

00:35to make sure that first of this money gets spent wisely and secondly that the Treasury

00:40understand that this is not a one year commitment, but something we're going to need for the

00:43rest of this term?

00:44I thank my Honourable Friend and can I also say Mr Speaker, congratulate my Honourable

00:50Friend on his recent engagement. He's absolutely right to point out about the importance of

00:58money being spent saves money. I think a couple of interesting facts is for every £1 we spend

01:03on maintenance of flood defences actually saves £13 when it comes to that damage prevented.

01:09And for building new defences for every £1 we spend, it's £5 spent in preventing damage.

01:15So these are important statistics that I tend to use frequently with the Treasury in future

01:20negotiations and spending reviews.