Sir Michael Pitt's report on learning the lessons from the 2007 floods included the recommendation that DEFRA should amend emergency regulations to increase the minimum amount of water to be provided in an emergency, in order to reflect reasonable needs during a longer-term loss of mains supply.
The Government's response, published on 17 December, supported changes in response to this, and supported all Sir Michael's recommendations.
Discussions have taken place with the water sector, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Health Protection Agency, the Consumer Council for Water, Ofwat and the Welsh Assembly Government. We expect to provide updated guidance to water companies on the minimum amount of water to be provided in an emergency before the new year.
The following table shows the number of homes at risk of river and tidal flooding in each Environment Agency region.
EA Water Management region Tidal River Both Total Anglian 179 109 9 297 Midlands 22 175 5 201 North East 148 111 5 264 North West 41 127 2 169 South West 50 64 27 140 Southern 113 38 5 156 Thames 299 187 5 492 Wales 54 81 24 158 Total 906 892 81 1,879 Note: Figures are shown in thousands of properties.
The Environment Agency's ‘Flooding in England’ report published in June 2009 estimated that, in addition to the above, a further 2.8 million homes and businesses in England are at risk of surface water flooding. This was an estimate to assess the scale of the risk and was not broken down by region.