The shifting sands of flood risk management in England and their impact on city governments.

Transcription

1 The shifting sands of flood risk management in England and their impact on city governments. John Blanksby Pennine Water Group, University of Sheffield

2 Three parts to the presentation Part 1 A brief personal perspective on the changes in flood risk management in England since 1971 Part 2 Meeting the flood risk management challenge What the government is doing to help Part 3 Meeting the flood risk management challenge UK developments in learning and sharing and how it fits with our Interreg projects

3 Part 1 A brief personal perspective on the changes in flood risk management in England since 1971

4 Introduction and starting point 1974 Local government and the water sector have undergone a series of metamorphoses since the 1960s Following a lengthy period of review and Parliamentary processes, a two tier system of local government was established in April 1974 in parallel with the formation of ten catchment based water authorities managing the hydrological system from the sky to the sea. As part of this new system, lower tier District authorities retained specific duties for local land drainage, public health aspects of water management and the management and operation of sewerage systems as Agents for the water authorities. All local authorities retained drainage sections, some of which employed significant numbers of highly competent staff.

5 Water Authority Sea Rivers and large streams Reservoirs Sewage treatment Sewers Ownership Local authority Small streams Land drainage Sewers Management and operation

6 The fragmentation of the water sector 1990 Contrary to popular opinion, Margaret Thatcher was not totally opposed to the European Union Her government embraced much of the economic policy which supported open markets within the Union and took significant steps to reduce the size of the public sector and its borrowing requirement by the privatisation of nationalised industries. Coal, Steel, Telecoms, Electricity and Gas were all privatised and the regional Water Authorities went the same way in The National Rivers Authority (the fore runner of the Environment Agency) took on an over arching regulatory role and an operational role for main rivers and remained in the public sector, but the operational arm covering water supply and distribution and sewerage and sewage treatment was privatised as ten water companies. At the same time an economic regulator (OFWAT) was created. The 1989 did not remover the provision of local authorities to act as sewerage agencies, but their position was weakened and there were subtle changes in the way that water management was carried out

7 Changes in approach Between 1974 and 1990, the England had probably the most integrated system of water management that has ever been seen in the world. The regional water authorities integrated the water cycle within river basins and the link to local authorities through the sewerage agencies provided a means of aligning the water sector with urban land management and development processes. Because the sewerage agency costs were all paid for by the Water Authorities, there was a tendency to develop integrated solutions for sewerage and land drainage problems, and if there was a highway drainage problem, well it was all public money so the most cost effective option was developed

8 Post 1990, the new Water and Sewerage Companies focussed on their role. (Water and Sewerage). This meant that their budgets were now not available for land drainage or highways problems. Thus the driver for integrative approaches was reduced. Also, the W&SCs understandably took a more hands on approach to the sewerage function, taking direct responsibility for more strategic and large scale work, leaving the smaller projects and operational activity to the local authorities. Nevertheless local authorities manage to retain a significant amount of capacity for flood and water management.

9 Not all the W&SCs took the same attitude to the Sewerage Agencies Many continued to see the benefits of the association with local authorities, but some felt that it would be better to manage everything themselves and during the 1990s there was a general weakening of the links. Even so, where there was a need and an opportunity, some of the stronger local authority drainage sections were in a position to carry out work in weaker authorities, so the bonds remained. The next major change occurred in 2000

10 Water Authority Sea Rivers and large streams Reservoirs Sewage treatment Sewers Ownership Local authority Small streams Land drainage Sewers Management and operation Environment Agency Regulation Sea Rivers and large streams Reservoirs Water and sewerage company Public sewers Local authority Small streams Land drainage Local sewers management and operation

11 Nobody meant it Everyone wanted to do it good The response to the Wastewater Treatment and Bathing Water directives was a massive investment in research and massive investment programmes. Towards the end of the 1990s, the third periodic review was leading toward the price determination for the period As Environmental regular had advised Government on an impressive programme to improve river and coastal water quality through the reduction of discharges and the containment of sewer solids within the system. At the same time OFWAT, the economic regulator required the W&SCs to make efficiencies to keep down the cost of water bills. The W&SCs with obligations to shareholders made the efficiency savings whilst delivering the programme to reduce Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharges by the industrialisation of the process. Contractors were appointed to manage large new partnership contracts. The Sewerage Agencies had the expertise, but the law meant they couldn t contract out their services to private sector clients and they had to terminate their agency agreements and implement staff reductions A small number of staff remained to carry out the remaining land drainage, planning and building control functions

12 Then it started to rain Just as the local authorities lost most of their water management capacity and the close links with the W&SCs were severed, it started to rain. Whereas the UID programme could be carried out with limited local knowledge, flood risk management is highly dependent on local knowledge, but the sewerage agencies were history. Government funded research such as Foresight Future Flooding drew attention to the need to address urban surface water flooding and the strategic Making Space for Water programme took this on board. The major floods in summer 2007 which lead to the Pitt Review reinforced the need to do something and coupled with the requirements of the Flood Directive the Government responded with regulations and legislation which defined a new role for local authorities in flood risk management. Whilst the government has supported and is continuing to support local authorities in their new role, local authorities are undergoing major budget reductions as a result of the new Government s policies. In many authorities, experienced staff are leaving and at a time when there is a need to increase capacity to take on new responsibilities it is in fact reducing. This is the situation in the spring of 2011 and this is the challenge for those responsible for flood risk management in local authorities

13 Environment Agency Regulation Sea Rivers and large streams Reservoirs Water and sewerage company Public sewers Local authority Small streams Land drainage Local sewers management and operation Environment Agency Regulation Sea Rivers and large streams Reservoirs Water and sewerage company Public sewers Local authority Small streams Land drainage

14 Environment Agency Regulation Sea Rivers and large streams Reservoirs Water and sewerage company Public sewers Local authority Small streams Land drainage A summary of the recent changes Environment Agency Sea Rivers and large streams Reservoirs National overview and strategy Water and sewerage company Public sewers Private sewers draining to public sewers Lead local flood authority Groundwater Surface water Small streams Land drainage Local overview and strategy

15 Part 2 Meeting the flood risk management challenge What the government is doing to help

16 Impacts on local authorities The changes shown on the previous slide have major impacts on local authorities, in particular the organisation designated as Lead Local Flood Authorities There is a minor reduction in land drainage responsibility resulting from the transfer of private sewers draining to public sewers to the W&SCs. However this is offset by the new responsibilities for groundwater, surface water, local overview and strategy

17 New duties and challenges for Lead Local Flood Authorities development, maintenance, application and monitoring of a strategy for local flood risk management; strategic leadership of local risk management authorities.; a duty to investigate and publish reports on flooding incidents in its area (where appropriate or necessary) to identify which authorities have relevant flood risk management functions and what they have done or intend to do; a duty to maintain a register of structures or features which have a significant effect on flood risk in their area; responsibilities as a Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDS) Approval Body (SAB) with responsibility for approval, adoption and maintenance of new SuDS developments; decision making responsibility for whether third party works on small streams by third parties that may affect water flow can take place; a duty to exercise flood or coastal erosion risk management functions in a manner consistent with the national and local strategies; and a duty to aim to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the exercise of flood or coastal erosion risk management functions.

18 New powers of Lead Local Flood Authorities powers to request information from any person in connection with the authority s flood and coastal erosion risk management functions; power to do works to manage flood risk from surface runoff or groundwater; and power to designate structures and features that affect flooding;

19 District Councils District Councils and W&SCs power to designate structures and features that affect flooding or coastal erosion; duty to act consistently with local and national strategies; and duty to be subject to scrutiny from lead local flood authorities democratic processes. W&SCs duty to have regard to national strategies and to have regard to local strategies; duty to be subject to scrutiny from lead local flood authorities democratic processes; and adoption of private sewers.

20 Response to the legislation There is a consensus that the legislation is well intended and gets things just about right It is considered that the new roles and responsibilities should rest with local authorities However, there is a problem, and that is implementation. Just over ten years ago, the local authorities would have had the resources and capacity to take on the new roles and responsibilities with little impact Even though the ties between the W&SCs and the sewerage agencies were not as strong as they were in the days of the regional water authorities, the existence of the agencies would have ensured the integration of all aspects of urban flood risk management, but that is history.

21 Where capacity is required Development and implementation of Strategies Flood risk regulations (the implementation of the EU Flood Directive) Duties to investigate Duties to maintain asset registers Sustainable drainage systems

22 Strategies Lead local flood authorities must develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy for local flood risk management in its area for the following forms of flood risk: surface runoff; groundwater; and ordinary watercourses. By law, the strategy must specify the following: the risk management authorities in the authority s area; the flood and coastal erosion risk management functions that may be exercised by those authorities in relation to the area; the objectives for managing local flood risk (including any objectives included in the authority s flood risk management plan prepared in accordance with the Flood Risk Regulations 2009) (This covers the implementation of EU Flood Directive); the measures proposed to achieve those objectives; how and when the measures are expected to be implemented; the costs and benefits of those measures, and how they are to be paid for; the assessment of local flood risk for the purpose of the strategy; how and when the strategy is to be reviewed; and how the strategy contributes to the achievement of wider environmental objectives.

23 The flood risk regulations The key provisions of the Regulations are: to give responsibility to the Environment Agency to prepare Directive deliverables preliminary flood risk assessments, maps and plans for floods from the sea, main river and reservoirs; to give responsibility to lead local flood authorities (unitary and county councils) to do the same for all other forms of flooding (excluding sewer flooding which is not caused by precipitation); to require preliminary flood risk assessments (PFRAs) by the Environment Agency and lead local flood authorities to be prepared by 22 December These should, on the basis of Environment Agency and lead local flood authority PFRAs, identify areas of significant flood risk; the requirement of flood hazard and risk maps to be prepared by 22 December 2013 for identified areas of significant flood risk; and the requirement of flood risk management plans to be prepared by 22 December 2015 for the same areas. Lead local flood authorities will need to submit their PFRAs, hazard and risk maps and management plans (where required) to the Environment Agency six months before the specified December deadlines to allow for review, collation, publishing and reporting to the European Commission.

24 Duty to investigate In the event of a flood in its area, a lead local flood authority in England must make enquiries to ascertain which relevant authorities have flood risk management functions that may need to be exercised in response to the flood, and whether each of those relevant authorities has exercised, or is proposing to exercise, those functions in response to the flood.

25 Duty to maintain an asset register A lead local flood authority in England must establish and maintain a register of structures or features which may affect a flood risk in its area (including things designated under Part 2), and a record of information about each of those structures or features. The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision about the content of the register and record. The regulations may, in particular, provide that the register or record must contain information about ownership, and state of repair. The lead local flood authority must arrange for the register and record to be available for inspection by any person at all reasonable times. The Secretary of State may by regulations provide for information of a specified description to be excluded from the register or record.

26 Sustainable drainage systems responsibilities as a Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDS) Approval Body (SAB) with responsibility for approval, supervision of construction, Commissioning, adoption and maintenance of new SuDS developments

27 Developing capacity Defra/EA have made a significant investment in the facilitation of the development of capacity for local authorities. This started during Making Space for Water when 15 urban flood risk and integrated urban drainage pilots studies were carried out and the results were drawn together in a final report rfacewater/urbanrisk.htm Following this guidance for the development of surface water management plans was produced /manage/surfacewater/swmp guidance.pdf

28 Timeline for Making space for water Future water Pitt Review Future water SWMP Guidance Planning Policy Statement 25

29 Draft strategy for skills and capacity building in Local Authorities for local flood risk management Published July 2010 Three themes Developing knowledge and skills for existing staff Building capacity through provision of educational courses for new staff Providing information and tools primarily to support LAs and other stakeholders to develop skills.

30 The initial programme Training to Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) and SuDS Approving Bodies (SABs) or their representatives. LAs have identified their priority needs and these are reflected in the strategy. The timing of the training needs to be coordinated with the implementation programme of the Act and Regulations which has yet to be decided but some elements can be developed immediately. Ongoing work to provide education courses and apprenticeships will also be progressed. There are 150 LLFAs all of whom are likely to require training of some kind and it is estimated that about 700,000 of the funding should be utilised for providing training. Provision of a web based portal giving local authorities to access all the relevant information they need and to provide a facility where latest news and good practice can be shared is the second main priority. Work has been undertaken to scope the requirements of a portal and it is estimated that setting up costs and populating it with information may cost up to 100,000. Other solutions such as tools, data set licences are also considered for funding but at this stage these initiatives will require further information and scoping work to enable elements to be taken forward (est. 200,000 cost).

31 Training Defra Capacity Building Strategy agency.gov.uk/courses/fcrm/capacity/ Understanding the new FCERM legislation An introduction to the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) legislation Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) Designed to provide users with an increased knowledge of the background and methodology involved in carrying out a PFRA as required by Defra/EA Collaborative Working Skills developing personal and organisational collaborative working skills in the context of Local Flood Risk Management (LFRM) and all flood and coastal erosion risk management. Sustainable Urban Drainage an introduction to the new roles and responsibilities related to SuDS following the introduction of the Flood and Water Management Act Local flood strategies Modelling and information sharing

32 Web portal and tools The Government is having second thoughts about a dedicated web portal. They have a large number of web portals and are not sure of the value of many of them. However, they are very interested in the FlowNet Community of Practice which has been supported by FRC, MARE and SKINT. They are also interested in the potential contributions of Learning and Action Alliances and the YHLAA and DCC have been referred to several times in the Draft Strategy document. The YHLAA has formed seven working groups and once the pressure of producing the PFRAs abates it is expected that the outputs from these groups will increase. In particular the needs of LLFAs beyond the PFRAs will be addressed, including what LLFAs really want for local strategies, incident investigation, asset registers and SUDS management.

33 Part 3 Meeting the flood risk management challenge UK developments in learning and sharing and how it fits with our Interreg projects

34 FlowNet I'm the policy lead on Flooding at the LGA, working within the Environment team. I hope that this Community of Practice will also help to inform LGA policy development and at the same time raise awareness of all the groups, discussions, projects and lobbying which the LGA is involved in on behalf of local authorities. I would like to join the community from an interest point of view as Derby is in the Humber catchment area. I've been taken on to write the Council's PFRA (East Riding). Colleagues recommended this forum. I was hoping for some wise words from LAs elsewhere in the region who may have alreday started work on their PFRAs. My day-to-day role is in Flood Resilience and as a memebr of the YHLAA. I would find it very useful if I have the opportunity to access, and contribute to the FlowNet community.

35 Communities of Practice (LAAs) and the Knowledge Hub A new Local Government Association initiative is underway and this will go a long way to facilitate the development of Learning and Action Alliances and the sharing of data and knowledge The Defra/EA initiatives can be accessed by the Knowledge hub, but it can do more by supporting end users and initiatives that they develop like BaltCICA, MARE, FRC, SKINT and SAWA

36 Where do I look for the information and knowledge I need to do my job? Partnerships and places library

37 Which communities and networks do I need to join?

38 IDeA CoP Platform Statistics Platform officially launched November Currently 35,000 registered users. 820 communities. 90 new members a day (over 400 new joiners a week). Average of 10 new CoPs created each week.

39 How do we get to the People we want to get to? Social and professional networks proliferate

40 So let s collect, aggregate and filter the information in order to make some sense of it all. Blogosphere Datasets Apps, plug-ins, widgets Websites KHub Twitterverse Personalisation CoPs Knowledge Workers Mobile Phone Apps RSS/Aggregation

41 Knowledge needs to be fresh to be relevant Like text books, good quality research publications are likely to be behind the times The solution is not just a library or a document repository although they have their role

42 Moveing from knowledge repositories and telling people how to do it to sharing knowledge and experience through stories and narrative More use of narrative, stories, and video. It s about people and what they are doing Sharing knowledge and experience, which is about what Learning and Action Alliances and Interreg projects are about!

43 In FRC, MARE and SKINT we are trying to work together to create the alliances and communication system to enable this to happen Are their similar initiatives in other NSR, NWE and Baltic Region countries? It may be worth finding out as they will help in preserving the legacy of all our projects!