Emma Hardy
MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice · Labour · United Kingdom
“If the soil can retain more moisture, that helps with drought in the summer—that helps with groundwater levels—but it will also absorb more water when there is a flood. It was interesting that the hon. Lady mentioned the Netherlands. Just last week, I met someone and talked to them about their regional planning and—exactly as the hon.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“While I have the Floor, and I am able to, I will talk a little bit about what we have been doing. After more than a decade of under-investment by the previous Government, we have invested £2.65 billion in our first two years, delivered real change, stabilised the condition of existing defences and done 250 flood defence projects, with new…”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Government are committed to building the homes the country needs while ensuring they are resilient and safe from flooding, and a consultation on the new national planning policy framework concluded recently. The updated policy clarifies how key flood risk tests should be applied and strengthens policies relating to coastal risk.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The situation now is that 81% of the country in drought, but we saw some flooding just last week—and one area that is in drought had a flood as well. We are dealing with the impact of climate change, which is absolutely here and now.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I will do my best to croak my way through the rest of the debate. I thank the hon. Member for North Herefordshire (Dr Chowns) for securing this really important debate. It was heartening that there was so much I found myself nodding along with as she was speaking.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Lady was on the Environmental Audit Committee, and one of the things that we have taken from the recommendations in the Committee’s report, which was a really good piece of work, was about how we create that one-stop shop for information.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
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“By protecting businesses, reducing disruption and safeguarding jobs, these measures contribute to stability and growth in the face of increased climate change and flood risk. The Government’s record investment in flood defences will benefit communities across the country, and our reforms to the flood funding rules will ensure a more balanced system that strengthens rural resilience and delivers benefits for farming communities and the environment alike. This is a personal priority for me, and it is a privilege to be the Minister responsible for flooding. I remain determined to ensure that our approach to flood risk is effective and co-ordinated to support the public we all serve. Question put and agreed to .”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am pleased that the hon. Lady also mentioned property flood resilience, which is another of my favourite things. The “FloodReady” report was published in October last year, with 22 recommendations and 50 supporting actions across six themes. We are looking at how we can move this forward and keep meeting regularly with the leadership group to see where we can make this something that is considered more of a normal part of something people do every day. The chair now sits on the flood resilience groups, which is really positive as well. This Government are committed to strengthening resilience to flooding, not only to keep people safe but to support economic growth in rural and local communities across the country.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Government are committed to building the homes the country needs while ensuring they are resilient and safe from flooding, and a consultation on the new national planning policy framework concluded recently. The updated policy clarifies how key flood risk tests should be applied and strengthens policies relating to coastal risk. Policy remains clear that inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas of highest risk. Where development is necessary in areas at risk of flooding, permission should be granted only if it can be demonstrated that the development will be safe for its lifetime, without increasing flood risk elsewhere. Additionally, the NPPF now requires sustainable drainage systems in new developments, designed to the national standards.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The programme is forecast to generate more than £27 billion of avoided economic damage, so I think that is pretty good for an investment of £7.9 billion. I think I should have mentioned that earlier in front of the Chancellor, but I will keep mentioning it—almost £7 of benefit for every £1 invested. The Environment Agency continues to work with Herefordshire council and the River Lugg internal drainage board to reduce that risk faced by local communities. I am aware of the £276,000 investment in a new hydraulic model of the River Wye to improve the evidence base for future investment planning and development decisions along the river. Turning to house building, although the hon. Lady knows that I am not directly responsible for it, I will reiterate the Government’s stance.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“While I have the Floor, and I am able to, I will talk a little bit about what we have been doing. After more than a decade of under-investment by the previous Government, we have invested £2.65 billion in our first two years, delivered real change, stabilised the condition of existing defences and done 250 flood defence projects, with new and improved defences coming online. The hon. Lady is right again: the money that we have put into that will prevent an estimated £10 billion in economic damage, provide communities with better protection, restore pride in our towns and defend valuable farmland from regular flooding. Earlier this year, we announced our 10-year flood and coastal erosion investment programme, which will benefit 200,000 properties over the next three years. The targets are ambitious, but I am proud to get behind them.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Lady and I agree on our love of nature-based solutions and slowing the flow, which is a win for everybody. I was pleased to hear that there are some in her area as well. We are talking about a minimum level of investment, so the only thing I would correct my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) on is that it is not just a small amount of money that is going in; it is a minimum amount. We set it as a minimum because we want to encourage people to use more nature-based solutions where possible. The pushback I get is that it is not always suitable. Of course, it is not always suitable everywhere, but I think where we can, let us let nature do what it does best. If that helps slow the flow and creates and supports biodiversity, surely we can all get behind it.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Lady was on the Environmental Audit Committee, and one of the things that we have taken from the recommendations in the Committee’s report, which was a really good piece of work, was about how we create that one-stop shop for information. We have launched Flood Action online, which is about helping communities to understand their flood risk and to look for flood information. It would be so helpful if colleagues around the Chamber could help share that and get that information out. While I am asking everyone for favours, the Priority Services Register helps to identify people who are vulnerable and who would need water in case of an outage, because flooding can cause problems with water supply—anything on that would be super helpful. We have changed the rules on investment. I know that the hon.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My focus at the moment is how we take the rain as it falls, and when it falls, how we use it to fill up our reservoirs so we are in the best possible position for March. It is also about how we make it easier for farmers. I am interested in what the hon. Lady mentioned about the work that her farmers are doing in their area. There is a great scheme by a water abstraction group in another part of the country, and it is absolutely one way to go forward. We have brought more people into the taskforce than ever before, and as the hon. Lady mentioned, some of the action groups are taking away specific actions. I know the hon.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Of course, I have huge admiration for Flood Mary, who is a wonderful person; I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Lady on that. The flood recovery framework is run by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, but I will ensure that the hon. Lady’s remarks are heard by the relevant Minister. The existing flood resilience taskforce, which I have already mentioned, is all about how we prepare not only for more frequent periods of increased rainfall but frequent periods of low rainfall, looking at those two sides of the same coin. As the hon. Lady said, the eighth wettest winter in England since 1836 was followed in some parts of the country by the driest summer in a century. That brings the challenges together.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If the soil can retain more moisture, that helps with drought in the summer—that helps with groundwater levels—but it will also absorb more water when there is a flood. It was interesting that the hon. Lady mentioned the Netherlands. Just last week, I met someone and talked to them about their regional planning and—exactly as the hon. Lady said—how they look at a region and decide what is the best intervention to take in that area. We are looking to introduce a regional approach for water in this country. That is what is on my mind—what is the best answer? Water pollution has not been mentioned in the debate, but we know that too much rainwater ending up in the system can create overflows. If we have areas where we can hold more water—this adds to why we should be doing this and why it is a good thing—that helps to decrease pollution.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is partly because of the number of flood defences we have been able to build successfully and partly because we have been able to restore and maintain more of our flood defences. It is also because with the original floods taskforce, after each episode of flooding each winter, we wanted to do some honest lessons learned on what worked, what did not and what we could do better and set up that cycle of continuous improvement; the hon. Lady was right on that. I am therefore pleased that now, through the flood and drought resilience taskforce, we are thinking about this together. I fully agreed with the hon. Lady on how the things that help with drought help with flooding as well.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The situation now is that 81% of the country in drought, but we saw some flooding just last week—and one area that is in drought had a flood as well. We are dealing with the impact of climate change, which is absolutely here and now. On a slightly different note, I find it frustrating that some parties in the House do not seem to accept that climate change is both real and here. Luckily, I can look around the Chamber and see that nobody in here currently does so, which is positive. As the hon. Lady said, this year may be especially challenging because we are expecting a strong El Niño, with an increased likelihood of wetter and stormier conditions across the UK during autumn and winter. We are better prepared this year than we were last, and last year we were better prepared than we were the year before.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I will do my best to croak my way through the rest of the debate. I thank the hon. Member for North Herefordshire (Dr Chowns) for securing this really important debate. It was heartening that there was so much I found myself nodding along with as she was speaking. I know that the emotional and financial impact of flooding can be devastating on families and businesses. Like the hon. Lady, I have spoken to many people who have been affected by floods, including farmers whose crops have been damaged. I have also seen and heard from communities affected by flooding. It is not just about the economic impact, but about the impact on their mental health and wellbeing. The scars of flooding remain for a long time after the floodwaters recede. I completely agree with the hon. Lady’s points about climate change.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We have strengthened regulation and enforcement, driving record water company investment into waste water infrastructure to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales. The strengthened Water Bill will go further in tackling sewage pollution from water companies, private sewage and catchment-wide pre-pipe and source-control conditions.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is right to be angry about the failure of water companies to report sewage pollution on time. Our Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 will enact automatic penalties for companies that fail to report sewage pollution within four hours. As he will have seen from South West Water’s recent £8 million fine for sewage pollution incidents, this Government take enforcement seriously.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Lady raises one of my favourite things, which is talking about pre-pipe solutions: in a nutshell, how we prevent— [ Interruption. ] They are very exciting. They are about how we prevent water from entering the sewage system and overwhelming it in the first place. They link perfectly with nature-based solutions, help to ensure that our soils are wetter and help against drought. I agree with the hon. Lady that we need more of them, and that includes water companies providing water butts for more of their customers. That will help with the overwhelming of the sewage system and help customers to water their gardens when there is less rain.”
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“I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will have noticed that, since we came into power, we have been taking enforcement seriously. Fines just this year include a £7.1 million fine and a £2.4 million fine for illegal sewage pollution against Southern Water and a £7.87 million fine against South West Water—and I have not even included all the Ofwat enforcement undertakings and the fines included there. He will have heard what our Prime Minister said: we are strengthening our water Bill and will bring it forward soon. We are not taking options off the table, and we are serious about fixing the mess that we were left to deal with when we came into power.”
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“Fly-tipping is unacceptable. It blights communities, harms the environment and imposes significant costs on taxpayers and businesses. Those responsible should be cleaning it up and paying for it. That is why we have strengthened the powers and penalties available to councils, to ensure that vandals face real consequences, and we are consulting on making them clean up their own mess.”
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“My hon. Friend is right to raise that. Her constituents are, understandably, frustrated, and I share her confusion as to why her council does not want to use the powers it has been given to fine fly-tippers, seize their vans and prosecute them. I join her in urging her council to do the job it has been elected to do, and I hope her residents remember this lack of action when it comes to the next election.”
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“I completely understand the frustration of my hon. Friend’s constituents at repeated fly-tipping on private roads. We are taking this seriously. We have increased the maximum fine for offenders to £5,000, and we are working on advising the owners of private land on land security through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group. We are happy to give that advice to private landowners, but where we find out who is responsible, we will not hesitate in going after them.”
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“It is good to hear about a council being proactive and cleaning up some of this mess. I agree that graffiti and fly-tipping offences are unacceptable. Graffiti is a separate offence from fly-tipping, but local councils can issue fixed penalties of up to £500 for graffiti offences, and we are consulting on powers for councils to use conditional cautions, requiring offenders to clean up their mess and cover the clean-up costs, instead of simply walking away from the damage they cause.”
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“The right hon. Gentleman raises an important point. I absolutely sympathise with farmers, who, as he rightly highlighted, often see repeated dumping on their private land. As I mentioned, there is the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group. I meet insurers regularly—in fact, I met them all last week—and I will certainly raise the issue of how we can ensure that farmers get the support they need in having to deal with a problem that is simply not of their making.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman raises an important issue. We have these illegal sites around the country; we are focusing heavily on the prevention side, before crimes are committed. We have already published the toughest ever waste crime action plan, given £45 million extra to the Environment Agency for frontline enforcement, granted new powers and expanded the joint unit for waste crime. We are going after prevention and are trying to clean up as many sites as possible, but fundamentally, we believe it is the polluter and not the taxpayer who should pay for the clean-up, and that is always the first route that we will pursue.”
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“The main problem that we have in the country is the serious organised crime behind some of these criminal activities, and that is exactly what we are going after through the new crackdown group, on which we are working with the National Crime Agency. We are escalating this issue and taking it extremely seriously because, as the hon. Gentleman said, we want to support legitimate businesses that are doing the right thing and get the criminals out of this industry.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Government are working hard to prepare communities for flooding this winter. Last week was Flood Action Week, and a wide range of information was communicated to citizens on how to protect themselves, their homes and their businesses. My personal favourite is the new Scout badge; if Members have children who are in the Scouts, they can now earn a badge saying “be prepared”, which I thought was brilliant. The communication targeted young adults, renters, householders, children, rural communities—quite frankly, everyone.”
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“We are going out to every area and talking to Ministers across Government, so that they can contact the organisations for which they are responsible and ask them if they are prepared and ready. Although I cannot stop it raining, I want us to be as prepared as possible when it does rain.”
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“The hon. Gentleman raises a really important point. We used to have the flood taskforce; just last week, we held the first meeting of the new flood and drought taskforce, which was attended by four Ministers—from DEFRA, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Department for Transport. The focus of that meeting absolutely was how we can be most prepared. I am determined that this year, because of El Niño and the concerns that the hon. Gentleman rightly raised, we will be more prepared than ever before. That is why we have done everything from targeting children and families, all the way through to looking at our transport system, resilience across Government and local resilience forums to see whether they are ready if the worst should happen.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend raises an important point. I remember that flood. I commend her now, as I did then, on the compassionate, caring and supportive way in which she went out there to help her constituents, and I know how much the events affected her. She is right to talk about catchment-based flood management, looking upstream and using more nature-based solutions. I know the Environment Agency is working well with its Welsh counterparts to see what more can be done in this area.”
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“My hon. Friend raises an important point. We intend to lay the statutory instrument before Parliament by the end of this year, subject to availability of parliamentary time.”
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“Our Prime Minister is committed to introducing public control of the water sector. Just last month, we announced that we will remove Thatcher’s outdated cap on Government ownership of water companies. Later this year, our 10-year plan for Britain will set out plans for stronger public control over the water sector, making it work for people and places again.”
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“Many of our older constituents, including my mum, remember returning bottles to the recycling bank and receiving money for them; it made sense then, and it makes sense now. Significant progress has been made on the deposit return scheme, but there is still lots of work to do.”
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“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, and will make sure that the relevant Environment Agency area director meets him to look at the concerns he has raised.”
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“My hon. Friend is quite right that we need to start thinking about flooding and water management in a more holistic way. We are looking at early roll-out of regional planning systems, which means we will start to address the issues of water quality and of flooding and water scarcity in the same area. My hon. Friend is right to hold water companies to account for delivering on the commitments they have made.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We are at the start of a decade-long journey to a very different water system, including nine new major reservoirs to secure supplies. I will continue to take the action needed to protect essential public water supplies and, of course, I will continue to keep the House and Members informed as the situation develops.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have also spoken with Members of Parliament who represent affected constituencies and sent letters explaining the steps that they can take to support our resilience efforts in their local areas. This week I chaired the first meeting of the Government’s new flood and drought resilience taskforce, bringing together over 50 stakeholders to strengthen the nation’s ability to plan for and respond to extreme weather, and I continue to oversee response measures through weekly national drought group meetings, to track that all necessary actions are taken to conserve water resources and maintain resilience. While the record-breaking heat and lack of rainfall have put our water resources under immense pressure this year, we must take action now to prevent this situation from becoming the norm.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“However, this level of drought is something that we have not experienced for decades, so it is right that the Government step up our support and work closely with water companies to protect public supplies in the areas affected. Over recent days, I have met with those leading efforts to protect water supplies in affected areas, including Wimbleball. On Wednesday I visited Wimbleball reservoir, where I met South West Water, Wessex Water, local resilience forums and Environment Agency teams to discuss the actions they are taking to protect public water supply. Yesterday I met the chief executive of South East Water and representatives from the Environment Agency to review conditions at Ardingly reservoir and the response in the south-east.”
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“We have instructed water companies to conduct daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels and tougher water quality monitoring. The Environment Agency will increase compliance checks on businesses that withdraw water from natural sources to ensure that they are only taking permitted quantities of water. Local resilience forums will be stood up to enable quick and effective development of support if required. Although water companies remain responsible for maintaining public water supplies and for taking action under their drought and emergency plans, we can all help by thinking about ways to use water wisely over the coming weeks.”
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“I have issued a ministerial direction to the Environment Agency to prioritise protecting public water supplies in areas affected by severe drought where there is an unavoidable trade-off between environmental rules and water supplies. That will allow water companies to keep more water in depleted reservoirs. The Environment Agency has also agreed temporary measures that will conserve water in Wimbleball and extend the resilience of public water supplies. Severe drought is the highest classification in the Environment Agency’s drought framework. While customer supplies are not interrupted, declaring a severe drought allows us to ensure that proactive steps are taken to safeguard water before any disruption occurs.”
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“The south-east and south-west in particular have experienced their driest April to September in over a century, with low rainfall causing exceptionally low reservoir levels in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex. As of 15 October, Wimbleball reservoir is approximately 16% full—its lowest recorded level for this time of year. Other reservoirs in the south-west are also at exceptionally low levels, including those serving the Roadford and Colliford water resource zones, and Ardingly reservoir, for example, is around 20% full. As a result, yesterday the Government declared severe drought in the affected water resource zones around Wimbleball, Ardingly, Roadford and Colliford, and in west Cornwall.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Before I turn to the statement, I would like to add my voice to the many others offering sympathy and support to the family of Sir David Amess in the week of the anniversary of his murder. It was always a real pleasure to work with him on the all-party parliamentary group on endometriosis. He is remembered very fondly. With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to update the House on the ongoing drought in England. Drought conditions continue across much of England. Last week Yorkshire moved into drought status. That means that over 80% of England is now in drought, affecting around 50 million people.”
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“Frankly, it was the previous Government who failed to prepare for any of that during their 14 years in office.”
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“This Government have been preparing for drought since I became Water Minister. In February, we ran the cross-Government exercise, and we have been working with water companies on emergency drought measures. Last winter, a year ago, regulators and water companies were already looking to take action because we know that this is the new normal when it comes to our weather. That is why we are preparing for it. The shadow Minister asks what we are doing to support farmers, but it is this Government who are giving £15 million for on-farm reservoirs, it this Government who are making the planning system easier so that farmers can build reservoirs, and it is this Government who are looking into flexible abstraction so that farmers can fill the reservoirs that we are helping them build.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a shame that the Opposition spokesperson is not taking this as seriously as required. To respond briefly to his points about what this Government have done, there are many things I can do—unfortunately, I cannot make it rain, but what I can do is ensure that this Government are prepared, and that is exactly what we have been doing. In February this year, DEFRA and Cobra ran a cross-Government drought exercise to test the current response arrangements, with lessons learned from the previous year. We have been planning for this since we came into government, because this Government actually believe that climate change is real. We are not a Government of climate change deniers. We are not a Government who wish to repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 and think that when it is sunny, we should just enjoy more barbecues.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend makes an important point. That was another challenge that we faced when coming into office, but companies are now fixing more leaks than ever before. They are also increasing the number of engineers who can fix those leaks. During this review, £720 million is going into smart technology, including the use of metering. One of the many reasons why metering is so important is that it helps customers to identify leaks; sometimes, they have not been aware of them. We are absolutely holding the companies to account, through the weekly national drought group meetings, to make sure that fixing leaks remains one of their priorities. It is one of the cheapest ways of ensuring that there is more water in the system.”
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“That is why that national drought group matters so much: it brings together all the important players and we try to work through that, but there is also that issue at the front of my mind.”
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“One thing the farmers said to me—I support them on this—is that the strict abstraction licences they have are based on dates rather than the amount of water in the environment. We are looking to trial a much more common-sense approach to abstraction in areas so that, if it suddenly chucks it down with rain, we would allow them to take more water As well as dealing with the immediate situation with the extreme drought, my ambition is to look at how we ensure our reservoirs are as full as possible going into spring next year. I am very keen to work in partnership. There is always a balance between thinking about public health—which must come first—and the environment, and ensuring farmers have what they need.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Gentleman, who is absolutely right to highlight the importance of farmers being able to store water on their land. We have been working closely with the NFU on that through the national drought group. But as I have said, as well as building the reservoirs, we need to focus on how to fill them up. DEFRA, the Environment Agency and the NFU are doing really interesting work on regional water resource groups and how we can strengthen water companies’ livestock resilience; supply outages have been a big concern. They are looking at one of the approaches being developed by South East Water: livestock registers, so that water companies are aware of where water is needed for livestock. They are also looking at flexible and dynamic abstraction.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I agree with my hon. Friend that we absolutely need to be putting people first; the Prime Minister could not have been clearer when he talked about public control. She is also right to highlight the lack of resilience we have seen building up. Many water companies have areas that are like islands within them, where they are unable to move water around the network—they simply do not have the resilience required. That shows a complete failure of the regulatory system of the previous 14 years that allowed the situation to develop. One really important thing we are looking at in the water Bill is having resilience standards so that a company can move water from a part of its network where there is an excess to a part where there is not. You would think, Madam Deputy Speaker, that they would have developed that very basic thing by now.”
House of Commons16 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Members have seen it—with the little kids in the blue tracksuits. I see some nodding; that is great. We should try to share that as much as we possibly can. The hon. Lady is right to highlight resilience, which is a challenge with South East Water. Again, it is one of those companies that has islands and is unable to move water around. She was right to point that out as a problem, and we want to work with the company on that. Let us deal with this emergency right now, but what are its longer-term plans to have greater resilience? Those have to involve looking at the ability to move water around. She is right that that must involve working closely with Southern Water as well.”
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“I recognise how important this is to the hon. Lady and her constituents. I made the promise on the call—I will reiterate it—that I want to work closely with all Members of Parliament who are directly impacted. I reassure her there are no current plans for the use of standpipes. Our declaration of severe drought means a slight change in prioritisation from the Environment Agency, which has that direction that public health must come first. It is looking at increasing monitoring. As a responsible Government, we are preparing for every scenario, but there are no immediate plans for standpipes. Our immediate request to all Members of Parliament is: please go and share the Let’s Save Water campaign, which is a national campaign that has been running all summer—hopefully some hon.”
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