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“We should put flooding on a par with things like terrorism risk or an influenza pandemic where we already have national frameworks in place to deal with these sorts of emergencies." Sir Michael Pitt, Independent Chair, Flooding Lessons Learned Review, who is delivering the keynote address.
“Investment will rise from its current level of £600m, to £650m in 2008-09, £700m in 2009-10 and £800 million in 2010-11. These record levels will be supported by the establishment of new outcome measures to secure best value and consideration of whether a Long Term Investment Strategy for the next twenty years is appropriate for this policy area.” Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for the Environment
Last summers’ flooding caused £3bn of damage to 48,000 homes and 7,000 businesses. In December Sir Michael Pitt produced his interim report which made sweeping recommendations aimed at bodies from town halls and telecoms groups to insurers and developers.
Describing the floods as a "wake-up call", the report also called on local authorities to take a bigger leadership role. In addition it concluded: that only flood-resilient housing should be built in areas at risk of flooding and developers should "make a full contribution" to building and maintaining necessary defences; that phone companies should be asked to co-operate in developing a scheme to call and warn homes and businesses threatened by flooding; that the water industry & develop "risk based standards" for drainage; and that insurers should be called upon to work with government to improve the "availability and uptake" of flooding insurance for low income households.
The financial investment that this will require will be very heavy and, while both government and the insurance industry welcomed the interim conclusions, there is a debate about where this burden will ultimately fall.
The final Flood Lessons Learned Review, having worked on a further 76 interim conclusions, is due to appear between early June and late July. This conference is timed to co-incide approximately with the final date for submissions.
This conference is aimed at all those responsible for flood management in the public sector whether in central or local government or the emergency services; at the utilities and construction companies; and at the insurance companies plus those responsible for business continuity management in companies in the flooded or flood risk areas and the planning, civil engineering and transport consultants.
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Confirmed Speakers
Conference Chairman
Daniel Lawrence, Of Counsel, Environment, Planning and Regulatory Group, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Keynote Address
Sir Michael Pitt, Independent Chair, Flooding Lessons Learned Review
Expert Speaker Panel
Colin Berghouse, Programme Manager, The Environment Agency
Paul Bettison, Chairman of the Environment Board, Local Government Association
Dr Timothy Brain, QPM, Chief Constable, Gloucestershire Police
Paul Davies, Chief Forecaster, The Met Office
Professor Lynne Frostick, Director of the Hull Environment Research Institute, University of Hull
Philip Graham, Deputy Director, Department for Transport
Paul Hayden, Chief Fire Officer, Hereford and Worcester
Stephanie Hurst, Resources and Environment Policy Division, Department for Communities and Local Government
Chris Murray, Director of Asset Management, National Grid
Phil Nicholson, Head of Network Operations, Central Networks
Sir James Perowne, Deputy Chair, Consumer Council for Water
Roger Presscott, Market Sector Manager, Planning, Halcrow Group Ltd
Chris Shaw, Strategic Director of Operations, Tewkesbury Borough Council
Nick Starling, Director of General Insurance and Health, Association of British Insurers
Dr Jean Venables, OBE, Chief Executive, Association of Drainage Authorities
The Conference in Brief
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Improving resilience and contingency planning at national level
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Managing the costs of floods: the role of insurance vs government
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Contingency planning for transport networks
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Contingency planning for utilities
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Improving co-ordination at the national level
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Land use planning in flood plains
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A case study on Tewkesbury
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A case study on Hull
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