Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Floods: Hertfordshire (21st June 2011)
Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment the Environment Agency has made of the risk of flooding in North East Hertfordshireconstituency arising from increased surface water.
Richard Benyon (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Natural Environment and Fisheries), Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Newbury, Conservative)
Following the Pitt Review, the Environment Agency produced national surface water flooding maps in 2008. These were provided to local resilience forums and gave an initial indication of areas that may be susceptible to surface water flooding.
In March 2010 the Environment Agency published the second generation of these, entitled 'Flood Map for Surface Water'. These included a number of improvements, such as the influence of buildings and the sewer system.
For a rainfall event with a one in 30 chance of occurring in any one year there are approximately 2,000 residential properties at risk from surface water flooding within the North East Hertfordshireconstituency, and a total of 3,200 buildings.
For a rainfall event with a one in 200 chance of occurring in any one year there are approximately 4,000 residential properties at risk, and a total of 6,100 buildings (about 10% of the buildings in the constituency).
The Flood Risk Regulations (2009) require lead local flood authorities (LLFAs) to prepare a Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) report of local flood risks for their area. The PFRA has to make use of all available information and will include the maps mentioned above. The local authorities will be using the maps and any other local information for the PFRA to make their best assessment of flood risk from surface water and may revise the figures indicated above.
The Floods and Water Management Act requires LLFAs to prepare local flood risk management strategies. Hertfordshire county council is the LLFA in this constituency and will be preparing the strategy in due course.