§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. George Thomas)Before I call the hon. Member for Esher (Mr. Mather), I remind him that he is on a narrow subject and that it will be necessary for him to keep to the housing subsidies Estimate for the Department of the Environment. I hope that he does not think that I am out to victimise him. I am trying to put him on the straight and narrow path before he begins his speech.
§ 8.48 a.m.
§ Mr. Carol Mather (Esher)I am grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for your advice. I have had forewarning of the direction in which the straight and narrow path leads. I am sure that you will find that what I have to say can be contained within the rules of order.
I raise the question of the acquisition of housing sites in relation to flood alleviation of the River Mole. In my constituency we are faced with all the usual factors affecting the provision of housing sites. First, there is the decline 1878 in the available number of houses to rent. A large contributory factor in this respect has been the Government's rent policy and the consequent drying up of the market. People simply will not come forward with houses to rent if they feel that they cannot at some stage dispossess the tenants.
We have also the difficulty of first-time purchasers who wish to buy their own property. The Conservative scheme for mortgages put out during the General Election would have been of great help in overcoming their difficulties. Thus, young couples are finding it difficult to get accommodation in the area. This is reflected in the increasing number of applicants on the Elmbridge Council list. We now have 1,291 applicants on it, and it increases by 38 a month. Over the last six months we have been housing an average of only 15 a month, which leaves a net increase on the housing list of 23 a month. This situation will mount up and we shall face an acute housing crisis, if we have not already reached it. The proportion of public housing to private housing is 1:6.5, whereas the national average is 1:4. The council owns 5,964 dwellings out of a total of 39,904 in the area.
Another very important factor is the great shortage of land for housing. A number of areas in the constituency exist where houses cannot be built because the land is liable to flooding. Until such time as the Mole Valley flood alleviation scheme takes place, we shall make no progress. As a result of the disastrous floods of 1968, such land has had to be put into cold storage, but I must make it clear that there is strong local opinion that too many houses have already been built on the flood plain and that to build more houses there would be asking for further trouble. This is not altogether accepted for every area by the authorities.
The Thames Conservancy feasibility report on the flood alleviation scheme, published in 1969, said that such flooding as occurred in 1968, when 2,506 acres were inundated, affecting 10,000 properties and doing damage costing £1.3 million, could happen only once in 200 years and probably a much longer period. But a flood potential more damaging, owing to the back-up of the Thames, has arisen a bare five years after the report was written.
1879 The report also said:
The main flood wave of the Thames usually arrives at Hampton Court some 3 days after any peak on the Mole or Wey. The odds against their combining are so great that they can be ruled out of serious consideration.On this occasion all three rivers—the Thames, the Mole and the Wey—flooded simultaneously, and this is the one thing which it was said could not happen. This was only five years after these words were written. This is the reason why we have difficulty in finding land for housing sites. In the recent floods this month, between 13th November and 25th November, the rain gauges at the Esher water pollution control works registered a total of 457 inches of rain over that period.On 23 rd November red warnings were issued by the Thames Water Authority for the Thames, the Mole and the Ember at 4 o'clock in the morning. At 6 o'clock in the morning the Mole and the Ember started to break their banks, and at 8 o'clock hundreds of houses were affected by floods, and roads were inundated. To give an idea of the wide areas covered, some of the streets which were completely flooded and cut off were Summer Avenue, Summer Road, Gladstone Place in the East Molesey area; Ember Farm Way and Esher Avenue in Thames Ditton; and Alexandria Road, Thames Ditton Island. That is a wide area of my constituency. These are just some of the places of which I can speak from personal knowledge, having visited them during that time. I could not get down these roads without using waders, but there were many others affected which I did not know about at the time.
One can imagine that when such a sitution returns so quickly, people living in these areas are very apprehensive. They cannot see why this scheme, which was formulated in 1969, is so slow in getting off the mark. Of course, able-bodied householders face these problems with great cheerfulness, but when old people face the problem of having to evacuate the whole of the ground floor and move their furniture upstairs, they really face hardship.
My main emphasis, from the points of view both of hardship and of land for housing, is on the inordinate delay between 1968, when these major floods took place, and 1974, when apparently 1880 no progress has been made. The original flood scheme as outlined by the Thames Conservancy was to cost £2 million in 1969. That sum has now increased, due to inflation and other reasons, to £6.4 million. People ask whether it is not possible to put into effect a modified scheme, but I do not think this is possible.
In the letter of 20th March from the Department of the Environment, giving the Department's overall approval, it was stated by the Minister:
I conclude the scheme is the smallest safely to be adopted.This is true. If one takes a dividing line from the River Mole just above Esher, the scheme comprises above that point a large flood plain which used to be contained by earth embankments and below that point a widening of the channel right the way through the River Thames. I do not believe that there can be any half-measures on this. At the moment a discussion is in progress about exactly how the costs will be borne between the Surrey County Council and the Thames Water Authority. If these discussions are delaying the start of the work, I ask the Minister to intervene so that it is expedited as much as possible.I know that the statutory processes in this kind of scheme are very lengthy— compulsory purchase, engineering planning and so on. But now the red tape must be cut out and work must be started.
The scheme was designed to cater for an event which the report said might not happen for 200 years or more. It has arisen once again in barely six years. The scheme was based on the fact that the Rivers Mole, Ember and Thames would never rise together. They did rise together, and created a situation potentially far more dangerous than that of 1968. It was touch and go.
The urgency of the scheme is now very great, and I urge the Minister to do what he can to set at rest the great anxiety and frustration and to ease the physical hardships that my constituents have suffered.
§ 9.2 a.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Gavin Strang)The hon. Member for Esher (Mr. Mather) has spoken 1881 from first-hand knowledge of the difficulties of his area and of the great need for this flood alleviation scheme.
The scheme is aimed primarily at the relief of flooding in an area of existing housing, and it is fair to say that it will not have a very significant effect on new housing sites in the area. The area of the scheme comes entirely within the Elmbridge district, and the district council is satisfied that none of the land in the area likely to flood is in any way blighted. People are buying land in the area and the authority is imposing a restriction on any housing in the parts liable to flood. Those houses must be built with a floor level at least 12in above the 1968 flood level, but this constraint will disappear once the relief scheme has been completed.
The scheme was prepared by the Thames Conservancy—now the Thames Water Authority—following the floods of 1968, when about 2,500 acres of land and 10,000 properties were affected. Our latest estimate of the cost is £5.5 million, and there is a discrepancy here between this figure and that given by the hon. Member, but I shall write to him and set out the basis for the Government's figure.
The authority has applied for a grant. We approved the project in principle when the estimate was £2 million and we have now nearly completed our examination on the basis of the greatly increased estimate. The scheme depends not only on the grant from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food but on a contribution from the Surrey County Council. The capital allocations to water authorities for 1975-76 await decisions on public sector investment, but we have been able to give the authority a sufficiently firm assurance to enable it to plan for a start to be made before the end of the current financial year.
§ Mr. MatherDid I hear the hon. Gentleman say that the Government were giving approval for a start at the end of this year?
§ Mr. StrangThat is not quite what I said. We have given an indication that the work will be able to start before the end of this financial year, but I will make this absolutely clear at the end of my speech.
1882 The proposals have not been universally accepted locally. There were not only objections to the compulsory acquisition of the land and property needed for the scheme but more general objections on the ground that the character of the area would be changed. Even within the past few days my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has received representations from local interests asking him to refuse approval of the scheme. Inevitably in a scheme of this complexity there have been delays because of the need to consider all the objections and to meet them where possible by amending the proposals. The preparation of detailed plans has taken time, as has the examination of the public expenditure aspects at a time when cuts are being made.
But we are aware of the tremendous importance of the scheme. We are aware of the depth of feeling of the hon. Gentleman's constituents, which he has eloquently expressed today. I am hopeful that the figures for the financing of the scheme will shortly be resolved, and that the Thames Water Authority will soon be given approval to make a start on the work. We shall pay close attention to this and do all we can to get through the financial discussions which must take place and see that a start is made at the earliest possible date.