Professor John Robertson OBA
I know, Storm Darragh’s winds hit Wales and South-West England hardest but Scotland had a similar massive downpour of between 30 and 45mm in different parts.
Reports of flooded homes and infrastructure are everywhere in the media except in Scotland. Why might that be?
Maybe I’m tempting fate, but we’ve been here before, in 2016, as major flooding of homes in England was desperately linked by ‘our’ media to a few cases in Scotland and supposed SNP failures.
Why are homes in Scotland not flooding despite massive rainfall?
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?).
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
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Ah but . thae ‘regulations’ is RED TAPE an the media keep tellin us it hus tae be ‘slashed’ so that businesses kin make PROFIT.
Keepin people’s hooses fae floodin isnae makin profit. If they wis allowed tae flood then household suppliers wid be able tae make money sellin people cherrs an bed an carpets.
That’s the reason Scotland shouldnae be allowed to run itself.
Alasdair Macdonald.
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Britnat majah p!shing down all over us in Bonnie Scotland.
Baron Georgio Ffloulkesakia drowing us all in a flood of petulant tears as Norstat polling destroys the chances of the Farage/Starmer “puppet FM”, Anas Starwars from ever gaining high office. Baillie mightily peeved and Lonely Murray has nothing to say….as always.
gavinochiltree
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It’s not all happy clappy, cheery stuff I’m afraid.
Strange how it’s perfectly acceptable for local councils to give planning permission to licensed ‘caravan sites’ (yes I know, classed as mobile homes for transients) on river course flood areas to construct hardstanding areas of concrete for log cabins and other ‘park’ homes, most of these are residential and lived in on a permanent basis (I used to live on the land, that flooded regularly due to the higher up council road and very narrow bridge causing the bottle-neck effect of floodwater backing onto mine), opposite such a site with 100+ log cabins). Perhaps this is the mitigating profit from dishing out big bucks to constructions companies, usually in the form of Balfour Beatty – a member of SCAPE thus preferred for the contracts that are not put out to tender – involved in the ‘flood prevention schemes’. Sometimes previous ‘rock armour’ work is successful and these schemes only benefit the construction companies, leaving a wake of destruction with riparian corridors ripped out of the heart of village life. Community consultations with the council and BB were few and far between and now that the work has commenced – already over-budget with a large area of farmland having to be reinstated due to lack of communication with the owners of the neighbouring houses and subsequent vibrations – there is even less communications, even although they say, ‘just come in to the office’. The offices by the way have taken over one of the car parks.
I do understand that yes, various flood prevention schemes are essential, but, £27 million to build the ‘great wall of Comrie’ when it’s not needed, is offensive. It only benefits Balfour Beatty and the local council. Not the residents of the village who are very much aware that sometimes, the rivers flood, usually on the flood fields.
Suspect there will be housing developers in the background waiting to pounce in 5 years time for plans to build, ‘bespoke, unique, riverside developments…’ Housing developers seem to carry a lot of clout when it comes to local councils and ScotGov.
Like the turbines, the pylons, the water, the oil, the fish, the ‘rewilding’, there’s a big scam going on somewhere.
I am, very much for Scotland’s independence, but something’s just not right. There’s a noticeable lack of standing-up to the biased media and actually working with communities and local councils. It’s like, they want our votes, but not too keen to knuckle down and communicate on the same level. CPO’s don’t cut it, and that, is often the way with how things pan out – the A9 dualling and land grab, for one.
fae Deelsdugs
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Good luck wi the great wall o’ Comrie, the great wall o’ Brechin failed less than 10 years after it was opened by Roseanna Cunningham.
Opened in 2016 as a 1 in 200 year flood wall, it was downgraded to a 1 in 100 year wall 5 years later, it’s now a 1 in 50 year wall.
The experts are now turning their attention to the erosion at Montrose.
Over 50 years since the deep water port was dug here and with the dunes and beach destroyed by the constant dredging to keep the port open.
Contractors arrived last week with some sandbags, to hold back the North Sea.
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Only slightly OT.
Stena line ferry stuck outside Belfast overnight unable to berth, Ferry services cancelled England, Wales Ireland.
Golfnut.
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Now what are the odds Rayner’s much publicised planning reforms will only make matters worse… ?
I keep seeing figures of 1 in 4 to 1 in 6 being quoted for homes at flooding risk “in the UK”, but it’s not just due to lax regulations in England, it’s very much down to topography and increasingly severe storm events….
Flooding risks are being updated more frequently these days, each new storm event results in new data, some of which is truly worrying… All it needs is for the storm event to land in an entirely different catchment, and the consequences would be devastating, and there’s not a damned thing they can do about it.
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