EAST COAST FLOOD DISASTER (Hansard, 18 March 1953)

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
My Lords, before we proceed with the next Amendment, perhaps your Lordships will allow me to make a statement which is being made in another place by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary. This statement, I should tell your Lordships, deals with the question of damage caused by the recent disastrous floods. The Home Secretary said:
"First I should like to say a word about the high tides which reached their peak during the past two days. We have been blessed with calm seas, and the defences that have been restored since February 1 have held. A small number of breaches in different parts of the coast are still open, but second lines of defence built behind them have withstood the tides and the area flooded is small. In particular, the temporary bank protecting the village of Wells-next-the-Sea was not penetrated. The front line will be closed as soon as possible.
"The Government were pleased to be able to announce that Lord Waverley had accepted the Chairmanship of the Departmental Committee which is being set up to review the lessons of the recent disaster and to make recommendations for the future. I hope to be able to announce the names of the other members of the Committee in the very near future.
"I now turn to the question of compensation for damage and losses caused by the recent floods. Perhaps I may briefly recapitulate the steps already taken. The first task was the immediate repair of the breaches in our sea defences. This was tackled straight away by the river boards, who were given an assurance from the start that they would be reimbursed the full cost of their operations. Total expenditure on these first-aid repairs is likely to be about £2½ million.
"It was also necessary to look after those who had been rendered homeless. Rest Centres were set up, emergency feeding arrangements were put in hand, lodging payments were authorised for householders who were willing to accommodate victims of the floods, and 76 the National Assistance Board made payments in cash to those in need. All this expenditure, which will be of the order of £250,000 to £500,000, will be borne on the Votes of the Departments concerned. The Government will also pay for first-aid repairs to damaged private houses, including the removal of mud and sand.
"Certain long-term measures are also required. We have to restore and strengthen our sea defences, and to finish the task so far as possible before the next winter starts. The river boards mainly concerned have been told that the cost of rebuilding the defences to provide the same standard of protection as before will be borne entirely by the Government for all works carried out by the end of September next, and that where an improved standard of protection is necessary the rate of grant will be a matter of negotiation. In some cases, for example, where special protection is provided for an important installation it would be reasonable to expect the undertaking concerned to make a contribution. A Bill will shortly be introduced strengthening the powers of river boards to enter on lands and do works to restore our sea defences. Such work will relate not only to the repair of existing sea walls and the building of new ones, but also to the quarrying of material required for that work and the construction of access roads. The Bill will provide for the compulsory acquisition of land on which work is done, should this prove desirable. Between now and the end of September, work costing between £8 million and £10 million may be done and further work will be necessary thereafter.
"The Government recognise that the floods have created some difficult problems connected with the rehabilitation of agricultural land, for which special provision will have to be made, particularly in view of their long-term nature. As a nation, we cannot afford to lose, for many years and possibly for ever, the productivity of thousands of acres of farm land.
"The free supply of gypsum, where it is needed, and the removal at the Government's expense of flood-borne debris from drains and ditches, have already been announced. In addition 77 to these measures the Government propose to make acreage payments to farmers whose land was so badly affected by sea-water flooding as to require special treatment before normal cropping or grazing can be undertaken without serious risk of making the damage worse. The farmers will be expected to conform to an approved programme of restoration. These payments will vary according to the kind of treatment required and to the risk of reduced yields and may extend if necessary over a period of five years. Expenditure on crops sown prior to the floods will be taken into account in fixing the rates of payment. The necessary statutory powers will be included in the Bill to which I have referred.
"Orchards that have been destroyed will be dealt with on rather different lines, but with the same general object in view. The existing arrangements for Exchequer grants towards the cost of cleaning out drains and ditches in the flooded areas will in principle be extended at a higher rate to work not directly arising out of the floods in order to assist the free flow of water and so get rid of the salt more quickly. The reasonable cost of fences to replace destroyed hedges and of repairs to fences will be borne by the Government. Finally, where it is practicable, the Government will assume responsibility for removing large accumulations of sand and debris from farm land.
"The total cost of all these measures for the rehabilitation of the land is roughly estimated at between £5 million and £7 million.
"Woodlands in the North East of Scotland suffered very heavily as a result of the recent gale. Altogether about 35 million cubic feet of timber, most of it privately owned, was blown down. To prevent the loss or deterioration of this timber, it is essential that it should be cleared up within a period of not more than two years, and the Government are considering what arrangements can be made to facilitate the transport of the timber which cannot be handed locally to sawmills in the South of Scotland for sawing and marketing.
78 "Many local authorities have suffered damage and losses and are incurring expenditure on a substantial scale. It will not be possible to deal with each claim individually, and at a later date there will have to be a general settlement between the Government and the local authorities which are it a position of special difficulty through having to incur expenditure on repairing flood damage. In that settlement the Government will be prepared to assist those authorities which have unavoidably incurred burdens which are unreasonably heavy in relation to their resources.
"Meanwhile, in view of the magnitude of the disaster, the Government will reimburse in full to any local authority the cost of restoring coast protection works is the condition they were in before the floods. If new works have to be undertaken, as in some areas they will, they will rank for grant under the Coast Protection Act in the usual way. Where the expenditure on new works is heavy, and the authority's resources are small, the Government will be prepared to consider a higher rate of grant than is normal. The question when it will be possible to authorise works will have to be considered on each scheme in relation to the resources available.
"You will have seen in the Press a statement giving further information as to the uses to which the Lord Mayor proposes to put has Fund, and I have received a letter from the Lord Mayor giving full particulars of these arrangements. With his agreement, I propose to circulate this letter in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
"The guiding principle is the relief of personal distress. It will be seen from the Lord Mayor's letter that grants will be made to the dependants of those who lost their lives, and to those whose houses were damaged beyond repair; grants will be made for the repair of other damaged homes, and for the replacement of furniture, clothing and other personal property in the home; and assistance will also be given to the farmer. There will also be help for personal businesses and I should like to say a few words about the arrangements under this head. Grants will be made in respect 79 of damage to, or loss of, the stock in trade or premises of a personal business or small partnership within a normal limit of £5,000. The Lord Mayor has stated that he will authorise a grant above this figure on evidence that unusual and immediate hardship and distress would result if the grant were limited to £5,000, although he has said that his present information is that 'such cases can be numbered on the fingers of both hands.' I should like to make clear where the Government stand in this matter of compensation to business concerns. In our view, public limited liability companies fall into a different category both from individuals and personal businesses, and should not be compensated for losses which are capable of being covered by insurance. If they did not insure, they were taking a calculated commercial risk and they must bear responsibility for their decision. I am sure that the House will agree that it would not be right to expect the taxpayer or the ratepayer to subsidise large businesses which are well able to look after themselves.
"There may, however, be cases which fall between the personal business, which can look to the Lord Mayor's Fund for assistance, and the large public company which cannot. For example, there might be a business, in form a public company, which carried on operations on a small scale and might be in a position of difficulty as the result of the floods. If there is the case of a small business where hardship is involved, the Government undertake to look at it to see whether any assistance can be given.
"The House will, I am sure, wish me to express on its behalf our great appreciation of the generosity of the public here and of our friends overseas in having contributed on such a scale to the Lord Mayor's fund, and also to express our thanks to the Lord Mayor himself and his staff for the energy, skill and speed with which the fund was set up and is now being administered. The Government recognise that the loss and suffering caused by a disaster of this kind cannot be completely recompensed by financial payments, but the decisions which I 80 have outlined to-day for the provision of assistance from public funds, and the arrangements by the Lord Mayor's Fund, to which incidentally the Exchequer is making a contribution on the basis of pound for pound, will go a very long way towards mitigating the losses which so many of our fellow citizens have had to endure."

LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, like others of your Lordships, I am very glad to see the noble Marquess back, and I hesitate, therefore, to press him on matters that were more active while he was away, but his statement raises one particular point of such importance that I want to make an immediate protest. We were told just after the disaster that it would be a national responsibility to make good 82 the losses. We are now told that compensation for losses it; practically confined to what we call small business farmers, unfortunate domestic victims in their houses, and the like. If I understood aright the statement that we have just heard from the noble Marquess, it seems that we have gone directly back on the Prime Minister's pledge in another place. I wish to criticise that and put in a caveat on this matter.

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
The noble Lord is quite right in saying that I was away at the time these things happened, but I do not think the House as a whole, or any part of the House except for the noble Lord, will consider that the action that the Government have taken is niggardly or "stingy." A great many millions are being laid out, and rightly paid out, in our view, in order to mitigate the results of this great disaster. Clearly the small man, for whom I should have thought the noble Lord would have spoken, is in a morn deplorable position than the, great business which can insure against events of this kind. The Government have tried, far as they could—I am sure that this is not a Party matter of any kind—to help those who are in no position to help themselves. It is to that that then efforts have been directed, and I feel sure that when noble Lords read the statement—and it requires reading—they will see, as I say, that the Government have used generosity which I am sure is in full keeping with the feelings of the people of this country, to whatever Party they belong.

§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH
My Lords, may I, on behalf of noble Lords on this side of the House, thank the noble Marquess, the Leader of the House, for the statement he has made? May I also associate noble Lords on this side of the House with the expression of appreciation he has given to all those who have so generously contributed to the Fund. I feel that the noble Marquess will also agree that of, on a close study of the statement which has just been read, we wish to raise any specific points at some future date, he will be the first to give facilities for it.

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
I need hardly say that I shall be only too delighted to answer any questions, but 1 shall be glad of notice of them.