Sue Powell, Gloucestershire Socialist Party
Flooding this year has closed roads, with some areas cut off. It was nearly a week before the Environment Agency (EA) started to drain farmland in the Somerset Levels. Crops and fields have been destroyed, affecting livelihoods and food production.
Britain is notoriously wet, and large areas are reclaimed land or flood plains. The country’s earliest flood defences date back to the 1st century, but the recurrent floods of the 21st century are not natural.
Disastrous floods in 2007 prompted the Flood and Water Management Act. We were promised regular consultations, government action, including more support for local authorities. Instead, we got the opposite.
Climate change, building on flood plains, as well as poor maintenance of waterways, drainage systems and defences were key factors in the devastating 2007 floods. It seems inexplicable that there are plans to build 300 homes in a Somerset village despite concerns about localised flooding, but this is not uncommon. The EA is objecting to hundreds of such plans. But, property developers prevail over the EA and local communities, because the underfunded local authorities that make these decisions fail to stand up to them.
Over 76,000 environmental incidents were reported last year – floods, drought, fires, pollution – one every seven minutes. Yet EA grants fell from £11.6 million in 2010-11 to £7 million in 2020-21.
The EA protection fund was cut by 62%, and staffing has fallen by over 20%. This affects the agency’s ability to regulate industrial sites, storm overflows and respond to serious pollution incidents.
EA staff work in all weathers and at all times. The growing workload combined with cuts has rendered the EA powerless, and accounts for a drop in the number of prosecutions.
Since 2010, the real pay of demoralised staff has fallen by over 20% – they effectively work one day in five for free – hence the strike action taken this year over pay.
The funding for leading enforcement agencies – Environment Agency, Food Standards Agency, Health and Safety Executive, Forestry Commission etc – dropped, on average, by 50 % in the decade up to 2019. One campaigner pointed out: “Environment watchdogs were the early targets of austerity cuts, and we’re still seeing the fallout today”.
Climate change
Six of the ten wettest winters since records began in 1862 have been in the last 25 years. Over three million homes are at risk of flooding, and climate change will add another 400,000 to that.
There is a wealth of ideas and solutions, but government policy and business interests stand in the way. Tackling flooding is part of the broader struggle for better pay, for democratic working-class control and public ownership of industry.
