Tuesday 11th March 2008

James Elles MEP

Government should distribute EU flooding compensation cash speedily

Thames Valley European MP James Elles has said that now the European Parliament has voted for a £123 million payment for areas affected by last summer’s flooding, the UK Government must move speedily to distribute the cash, especially to cash-strapped local government.

The cash, which is paid directly to the Government, is intended to assist with the reconstruction of key infrastructure following the devastating rainfall across the UK last June and July, estimated to have caused around £3.48 billion worth of damage.   The money has to be allocated in one year and the Government would need to justify how it was spent six months after that.

Mr Elles, who has special Conservative responsibility for the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, said: “The Parliament voted by a large majority for the £123 million payment from the EU Solidarity Fund.   The counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire were badly hit.   In Berkshire this involved particularly serious flooding in Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham and in Oxfordshire the worst affected areas were Abingdon, Banbury, Didcot, Oxford and West Oxfordshire.

“Now the payment has been sanctioned, I hope the Government will get on with the job of distributing the money as quickly as possible, particularly to local councils who were hard hit by costs at the time of the flooding.”

Last September Mr Elles gave a graphic account of flooding in the Thames Valley to the European Parliament.   In last month’s budgets committee he called for future EU funding to cover flood prevention, something currently not within the remit of the EU Solidarity Fund.   He is conscious, having visited flood affected areas, that flood prevention schemes would cost a tiny percentage of the damage caused last summer.