THE Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, has repeated her call for the Government to back a £125 million programme of new flood defence measures to protect thousands of homes and businesses.

Cllr Hinchcliffe has invited the new Chancellor and new Environment Secretary to visit flood hit communities to see first-hand the need for further investment in our region’s flood defences.

The letter to George Eustice MP, the new Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Rishi Sunak MP, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, comes after people in Calderdale, Bradford, Wakefield, Leeds and Kirklees had their homes and businesses flooded following Storms Ciara and Dennis. For many people it was the second time in five years, following the Boxing Day floods of 2015.

The Flood Alleviation to Unlock Economic Growth Programme would involve 27 projects including flood alleviation schemes in York, Keighley and Hebden Bridge which would safeguard approximately 3,300 businesses, 5,150 homes and more than 31,250 jobs across the region.

£3.3 million flood defence scheme for Otley

The programme would unlock development land which could provide 7,300 new homes and create 525 new jobs adding an estimated £100 million to the City Region economy over the next ten years.

It would also deliver environmental benefits including saving carbon emissions equating to taking 236 cars off the road every year and see £6 million invested in a natural flood management programme.

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the Leader of Bradford Council said: "As a nation, we have to accept that climate change is having a real and significant impact and the extreme weather we have experienced over the past two weekends is likely to become much more frequent.

“Since the Boxing Day floods of 2015, the Combined Authority has invested £20 million from the Leeds City Region Growth Deal, alongside over £170 million of partner match funding for the City Region, into schemes covering Leeds City Centre, Skipton and Mytholmroyd to safeguard up to 1,385 businesses and at least 11,100 jobs from the risk of flood.

“But we know that this isn’t enough so I’m urging the Government to demonstrate its commitment to protecting our communities by providing the funding we need.

“We've worked cross party and cross Yorkshire to put this bid together which has now been in the Government's in tray for some time. Given the urgency of climate emergency and change of Ministers I hope they will now look upon our bid with renewed interest."

Cllr Hinchcliffe's letter in full:

Dear Chancellor, Secretary of State,

Firstly, I would like to welcome you both to your new roles and I look forward to working with you.

I wrote to HM Treasury and the previous Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs earlier this year (17 January) and last year (29 August 2019) and (14 January 2019), in my capacity as Chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority. My previous correspondence sought support and a meeting to discuss our collaborative work on flood risk management investment, which has been developed on a cross party and cross boundary basis. In your new roles, and in light of the severity of recent incidents, we hope you will take the opportunity to visit the Leeds City Region and work with us to improve the current approach to flood risk management and better protect our communities.

As you will be aware, the heavy rainfall accompanying Storm Ciara has led to a number of floods throughout West Yorkshire affecting homes, businesses, schools and infrastructure across large parts of our area. This has been exacerbated by Storm Dennis which occurred last weekend with further unsettled weather due later this week.

The severity of this incident was reflected by the fact there were 90 flood warnings issued across West Yorkshire by the Environment Agency at its peak on Sunday 9 February 2020 with areas such as the Upper Calder Valley experiencing over 100mm of rain falling during a 12-18 hour period. This follows on from the devastating impact of floods in our area in Boxing Day 2015 and the recent incidents in neighbouring South Yorkshire on 7 November 2019.

There is now a consistent pattern of wet winter periods, with saturated land and consistently high river levels making our communities increasingly vulnerable to the increased frequency of intense storms. Many small town communities are struggling to recover and businesses are unable to plan for sustainable growth.

The floods resulting from Storm Ciara occurred in areas identified for priority investment in our previous submission to Government. These ongoing flood incidents have reinforced the economic, social and environmental arguments for securing capital investment to allow our communities to be more resilient and avoid both the human suffering and economic cost that comes with these events.

We would like to explore with Government how arrangements work for responding to future events when they happen e.g. establishment of Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) and emergency release of national funding. We also echo Calderdale Council’s request to be recognised as a ‘Tier 1 emergency and risk’ authority for flooding due to the sustained level of risk this area is experiencing.

Our Offer – Flood Alleviation to Unlock Economic Growth Programme

The Combined Authority has been working with partners - including the Environment Agency, the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee and Yorkshire Water - to develop an ambitious pipeline of schemes for the next six-year funding period from 2021/22. Alongside this work, partners have identified a focused package of investment activities that have the potential to add resilience to existing development and enable future growth. The plans are also included in the City Region’s Devolution asks and our Budget submission. The plan requires £125 million of government investment which will unlock local contributions for 27 priority flood risk management schemes and deliver a comprehensive natural flood management programme.

This funding would be delivered within our existing strong cross-organisation partnership that has a track record of delivering strategic projects. Most of these priority schemes are in areas currently affected by flooding. The programme will safeguard approximately 5,150 homes and 31,250 existing jobs, equating to c.£1.1 billion in Gross Value Added per annum. Delivery of this programme will also allow the City Region to make further progress toward our objective of becoming a net contributor to the UK economy and achieving our ambition of becoming a net zero carbon economy by 2038.

Please see enclosed for a copy of our Flood Risk Management Programme submission for consideration as part of your departments’ preparations for the Government’s first Budget, as a key component of meeting the manifesto commitment of £4 billion in new funding for flood defences.

Consideration should also be given to any short term emergency Government support that could match our own local grant funding resources to assist our businesses now. We also note that our council partners need funding for maintenance and capacity building, alongside our capital programme.

Next steps

Last week we received a response from Rebecca Pow MP (12 Feb) to our letter and previous submission (attached). Given the critical nature of the current flood incidents, I continue to seek a meeting to discuss how urgent progress can be made on the crucial safeguarding measures required to protect towns and communities vulnerable to flooding in the Leeds City Region.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe

Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority