By Professor John Robertson OBA
BBC 1 today is headlining ‘anger’ and ‘despair’ across England and Wales as flood defences in areas long run by the Conservatives and Labour, fail to protect.
Readers will remember how enthusiastically Reporting Scotland teams have visited flood victims in the past to get them to blame the Scottish Government for their problems. That sort of thing has really ebbed in recent years and today, BBC Scotland has nothing. They clearly can’t even one local to complain.
SEPA has put flood warnings in place but nobody is reporting any bad news. You can be sure BBC Scotland would be straight round if they did.
Why is this?
In January 2024:
Imagine this was in Scotland.
According to BBC Politics, but not headlined anywhere else:
Rishi Sunak is being urged by opposition parties to do more to help areas in England affected by flooding. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated following heavy rainfall, with flooded roads and railway tracks causing travel disruption.
Labour said the PM should set up a “taskforce” to manage the response, and set out what support will be available. He is also coming under pressure to visit flood-hit areas.
The Liberal Democrats said he should go to affected areas to “see for himself the devastation caused by these floods”. Mr Sunak said he had spoken to flooding victims and the Environment Agency was responding “appropriately and with all due haste”.
Then:
The government had committed to better protecting 336,000 more properties between 2021 and 2027 – but the spending watchdog report found this was reduced to 200,000.
The report also found the Environment Agency had removed 500 of the 2,000 new flood defence projects originally included in the government’s six-year flood and coastal erosion programme.
And notably:
Labour has not committed more funding to the project.
In Scotland, one third of 42 have been delayed but none have been cancelled.
Last year when heavy rains (40-50mm in 24 hours) hit the whole UK and there was major flooding in England but none in Scotland.
Why?
As far back as 2006, researchers at the English College of Estates Management, whose patron was HRH Prince of Wales, made a number of highly encouraging comments about the achievements of the Labour-run Scottish Executive, SEPA and the Local Authorities:
As far as flood protection is concerned, unlike in England, the 1 in 200-year standard of protection is ‘universal’ for all new buildings, with a 1,000-year standard for such vulnerable uses as old people’s homes, schools, hospitals etc. In addition, construction in flood hazard areas has almost completely ended. Crichton (2003: 26) estimates that “the active flood management programme currently in progress will result in almost all high-risk properties being protected against the 200-year flood within the next three years, taking climate change into account.” It is also interesting to note that the Scottish Executive grants for flood defences have never been refused on the grounds of budget restraints and there is no rationing of flood defence spending.
It is clear, however, that the more stringent building standards which are applied in Scotland ensure that severe storms result in much less property damage than comparable events in England. Also, the level of flood protection and the commitment of funding to achieve flood protection are higher in Scotland than in England.’
College of Estates Management at: https://www.cem.ac.uk/media/28193/flooding.pdf
More recently, with SNP leadership, the favourable comparison still seems to hold. Published research from the esteemed Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in 2012, seems to support my first impressions quite strongly:
‘Where English planning regulations permit building in flood plains where there is no alternative, Scottish Planning Policy does not permit building in areas in which ‘the flood risk exceeds the 200-year return period’, i.e. where in any year there is a greater than 0.5 per cent probability of flooding. Scotland has stronger regulations governing the capacity of sewage and drainage systems for new building. It also has stronger minimum standards for flood defences. Building regulations ensuring flood resilience in the housing stock are more developed. Scottish planners, through Flood Liaison and Advice Groups, are engaged with local communities, the emergency services, insurers and other interested parties in drawing up flood plans. The differences in regulatory regimes between England and Scotland are reflected in the number of households that are at risk of flooding, and the resilience of communities in responding to those risks.’
The level of investment will be one factor in these differences. In recent years, spending in England and Wales has declined seriously after significant increases under Labour in 1997 to 2010, as revealed in a UK Parliament Briefing Paper from 2015:
‘Central Government spending on flood defence in 2010-11 was cut soon after the Coalition Government was formed. Spending was reduced in one year by £30 million or 5%. In the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review (2011-12 to 2014-15), a total of £2.17 billion in central government funding was provided for flood and coastal defence. This represented “a six percent fall in central government funding”, The Committee on Climate Change calculated that this represented a real term cut of around 20% compared to the previous spending period.’
In sharp contrast, for Scotland, we see in a Scottish Parliament Committee Paper for 2014-2015, evidence of increasing investment:
‘With regard to flood protection and alleviation, the Committee welcomes the cash terms increases in the funding available to SEPA, and to the Natural Assets and Flooding budget, both of which sit in the RAE portfolio. The Committee believes that, due to climate change, severe weather events will become increasingly likely in Scotland in years to come, and it is therefore essential that flood forecasting and warning systems be as accurate and robust as possible. The Committee welcomes the increased funding for flood forecasting and warning in the RAE portfolio and recommends that the Scottish Government continue to ensure sufficient funding is available to improve flood forecasting and warning systems, to ensure greater consistency across the whole of Scotland.’
As for more recent evidence of superiority in the Scottish system, see this at the Scottish government site and little (surprise, surprise) MSM coverage of it at the time:
‘£42 million a year plan over the next decade.
More than 10,000 families are to benefit from a ten year strategy to protect homes in many of Scotland’s most flood-prone communities. The plan is the result of grant funding totalling £420 million and follows an agreement reached between the Scottish Government and COSLA. The cash will be used to deliver 40 new flood protection projects and support local flood risk management plans. More than 130 flood protection studies will be carried out to help find potential solutions for another 26,000 residential properties currently at risk. The announcement came as the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, fulfilled her pledge to return to Newton Stewart following an earlier visit in the aftermath of flooding at Hogmanay.’
So, unlike the UK Government, the Scottish Government has maintained or bettered the investment and the sophistication in flood prevention here. Had I been writing in 2006, the Labour-controlled Scottish Executive would have rightly claimed any credit for performance north of the border. In 2016, the SNP-controlled Scottish Parliament can do the same. Will BBC Scotland allow them to do it? They clearly didn’t in the run-up to General Election in 2016 so I doubt it.
There you have it, my attempt to shore up our defence plans against a flood of BBC bias (See what I did there, again, again?) as we approach the UK Monsoon season.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37306094
http://news.sky.com/story/16312m-flood-defence-plan-an-elastoplast-say-victims-10569571
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Environment/Water/Flooding
College of Estates Management at:https://www.cem.ac.uk/media/28193/flooding.pdf
UK Parliament Briefing Paper at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tGK3kUO-iKEJ:www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn05755.pdf+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
Scottish Parliament Paper at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/70875.aspx
Scottish Act on Control of Flood water at:http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1057/0094052.pdf
WWF Report at: http://nationalfloodforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/floodplanner_web.pdf
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
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Talking-up Scotland 
BBC praising Scottish ( SNP ) Government by omission ?
Expect a Flood of SNPBaaaad stories to shore up the defences of The Union , a wave of delayed Ferry articles and a torrent of selective Scottish NHS misinformation designed to drown out the odd Scottish Good News item which seeps out of the wall of negativity which passes for neutral broadcasting today by the lifeboat of the Union , BBCScorchedland .
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An earlier comment…
Pulling that ‘huffy face’ look must be standard training in Labour as evidenced by those astonished Welsh Labour Councillors this monday morning that Storm Bert could have caused so much flood damage and chaos to Wales. After all who would have thought that an area so susceptible to flooding they would have been caught out like this. Obviously being Labour the blame lies not with them but with the Met office for not telling them and giving them an ‘Amber’ warning. ”It wasnae our fault” is their standard response.
By contrast with no ‘Severe Flood warnings’ in Scotland those intrepid BBC Scotland ‘Unionist heroes’ did not get a chance to show wee Jamie’s field in Aberdeen under a few inches of water to get their missed opportunity to blame the Scot Govenment. But at a guess they will be keeping their wellies at the door just in case they get an ’emergency’ phone call from the Daily’s so hold the front pages.
Robbo
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You are correct to say Scottish standards have been higher, but even those have been stressed by ever increasing storm events…
There are vast swathes of England where it is impossible to apply such standards, long meandering rivers at slack gradients running through major population centres are not so common in Scotland – However, disaster mitigation and prevention has long been ignored in HMG, as Covid and the energy crisis so elegantly demonstrated….
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A part of Brechin was flooded last year, some folks are still no back in their hooses yet.
Angus Council built a flood wall costing £16M, it failed, the damage caused cost £17M, it might need another £5M to repair the flood scheme, almost £40M wasted.
Dredging of the river there has been ruled out by the so called experts, on very spurious grounds, fish spawning and freshwater mussel beds,
I’m no expert but if you double the width of the river back to where it used to be and double the depth, then it will carry 4 times more water than it does now.
The so called experts have a plan for the dredging led erosion at Montrose, some specially engineered sandbags are to be used, to hold back the North Sea?
The so called experts are ‘at it’ making the Scots Gov look stupid and incompetent.
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I’ve called you out on this once before Alex, but you have neither the sense you were born with nor learned anything from our last encounter where you demonstrated the grasp on river and flood flows of an individual who had never left a 10th storey apartment since birth.
I’ll explain your ” I’m no expert but if you double the width of the river back to where it used to be and double the depth, then it will carry 4 times more water than it does now ” by analogy – Would you expect a short section of 4″ between two half inch pipes to deliver greater flow than if it were all half inch ?
Answers on a brain cell, if you can find one, to Angus Council.
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£40M wasted at Brechin, and all you’ve got is some childish abuse, ffs what are you like.
A so called expert from SEPA told me the dredging at Montrose had stopped the town from flooding, lol, so if it can keep the North Sea out of Montrose surely it can keep a wee river out of Brechin.
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Childish is pontificating on a subject in which you remain demonstrably clueless despite having been corrected previously, abuse is what you get when you insist on repeating it.
The answer to the analogy and your original question is ‘only if an idiot’ – The flow remains exactly the same.
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Wow, even more abuse from our resident know all.
River St in Brechin has a history of flooding going back 250 years, it should have been used as a park, however we are where we are, and the so called experts have failed the town.
Misled by the so called experts it has cost the ScotsGov £40M SO FAR.
Look out for more hare brained schemes for the so called experts like Prof Lamont above.
The so called experts are now turning their attention to the erosion at Montrose, some sand bags are to be installed in the coming weeks, what could possibly go wrong?
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Ah, the good old shift the thread routine so beloved of Tories trying to hide their tracks…
No Prof here aside our host – If used in reference to me as a slight, I’m sorry to advise I’m merely an old and experienced engineer who has had the good fortune of rarely encountering an arse wi teeth, yet here you are… again.
Your unreferenced and selective ‘quote’ of ” building dykes and straightening rivers to increase discharge capacity, dredging to deepen channels, and building reservoirs and artificial retention areas to store excess waters” was eventually traced to the ECRR Symposium of 2021, https://www.ecrr.org/River-Restoration/Flood-risk-management but woefully and most deliberately quoted out of context.
My only conclusion from this deliberate distortion with a side order of venom for SG is that you work for James Cook, Sarwar or both….
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you’ve got no clue what happened at Brechin, and no idea of what’s happening at Montrose.
all you’ve got is bs and personal abuse.
you’re a sad man Bob, try to get out more.
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No Alex, why did you feel it necessary to misrepresent the context of the ‘Classic Flood Risk Management’ segment as backing your concepts when it was doing the precise opposite ? Essentially, why deliberately lie if you are not a bad actor ?
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you’re a funny loon,
I see a someone complaining on the crap coming from Nature Scotland and SEPA over on the WGD blog.
Is he a bad actor an a’?
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Again the attempted diversion – You’re prepared to lie through your teeth to get your way – A Labour councillor or activist perhaps ?
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Here are the basic methods of flood control,
Classic flood risk management
This is commonly done by building dykes and straightening rivers to increase discharge capacity, dredging to deepen channels, and building reservoirs and artificial retention areas to store excess waters.
Seems like the so called experts at Brechin got it badly wrong, £40M down the swanny, what’s next I wonder.
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