§ 30. Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will state the public authority or private funds to which the household victims of the recent flooding in Hull should apply for financial assistance to make good the damage and expense which they incurred to their goods and chattels.
§ Sir K. JosephThis was a case of flooding from the sea, not the same as the recent flooding from torrential rains which, in the exceptional circumstances, the Government decided should be assisted from Exchequer funds. My right hon. Friend cannot accept the implication in the Question that, apart from insurance which householders themselves provide, there must be some fund to which they can automatically turn for assistance, regardless of their other means. However, he understands that in this case a local flood relief fund, which was established some years ago, will assist.
§ Commander PurseyLast year, after the rain floods, householders flooded out for the first time received help from Government sources. Will the hon. Gentleman therefore consider granting compensation from Government funds to those Hull householders who are regularly flooded out at every exceptionally high tide because wharf owners will not improve deficient wharfs? Insurance companies will not provide cover for these householders.
§ Sir K. JosephThese are matters in which the local authority may be able to help in some way. In any case, a local relief fund is being used in this instance.
§ Mr. PagetWill the hon. Gentleman tell us why the Government are suddenly drawing this distinction between fresh water and salt water? A few years ago, when we had the formidable floods owing to the breaking of the sea wall at Canvey Island, the Government accepted responsibility for that exceptional disaster.
§ Sir K. JosephThe Government have to consider each situation on its merits.
§ Mr. M. StewartDoes not this emphasise the desirability of what we on this side of the House have often urged—the existence of a national fund to help the victims of disaster, without the drawing of these nice distinctions between one kind of disaster and another? If people's homes are flooded, then it is little consolation to them to be told that it has been done with salt water instead of fresh water.
§ Sir K. JosephMy right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has said that this question is being reviewed by the Government. He promised a report to the House after the work as a result of the floods is finished.
§ Mr. GaitskellWhy are the merits of flooding from rain water so much greater, in the eyes of the Government, than flooding by salt water? The hon. Gentleman must explain the Government's view of this. A categorical statement that the Government will help with rain water but not with sea water is ridiculous.
§ Sir K. JosephWe have to take into account the predictability of occurrences. If rain is torrential, or the sea rises as it does only once in a century, then citizens cannot be expected to guard against it by their own insurance or other protection. But where a person chooses to live by the sea and where, as the hon. and gallant Member for Kingston upon Hull, East (Commander Pursey) has indicated, a certain amount of flooding occurs regularly, citizens must be taken to accept the risk.
§ Mr. SpeakerMr. Stonehouse.
§ Commander PurseyThese people are being flooded out regularly.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. We must move on from Hull to Barotseland.