Extract from Westminster Hall debate on Flooding: South Yorkshire - Jan 30
Friday, 31 January 2020 08:55
Ruth Jones (Newport West) (Lab):...There is an important point to
be made about resources. After the floods of 2015 the then Prime
Minister, David Cameron, said the immortal words, “Money is no
object”. If only the actions of his and the current Government
matched those words. Austerity has had a devastating impact on our
environment. There have been unprecedented cuts to the budgets of
local authorities across the country, including South Yorkshire.
There have also been cuts to...Request free trial
(Newport West) (Lab):...There is an important point to be made
about resources. After the floods of 2015 the then Prime Minister,
, said the immortal words,
“Money is no object”. If only the actions of his and the current
Government matched those words. Austerity has had a devastating
impact on our environment. There have been unprecedented cuts to
the budgets of local authorities across the country, including
South Yorkshire. There have also been cuts to organisations such as
Natural England and the Environment Agency.
Staffing levels at the Environment Agency have fallen by around 20%
since the Tories came to power in 2010. Natural
England has had its budget slashed by more than half, from
£242 million in the last year of the Labour Government to just £100
million in 2017-18, resulting in the loss of more than 1,000 jobs.
All of that has seriously undermined the ability of the United
Kingdom to tackle the environmental crisis facing our country and
to deal with the impact of climate change more generally. I say to
the Minister that we have no time to waste, because flooding is not
going to go away, so we need a comprehensive plan for every
community at risk of flooding...
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