· Written evidence submitted by the Fire Brigades Union (FLO0004)

Executive summary

· Firefighters tackle major floods – a service rightly demanded by the public. · Firefighters experience problems with equipment, boats, PPE and welfare facilities during floods that need to be tackled. · Firefighters need greater numbers of personnel and resources to tackle future floods. · The FBU wants a statutory duty on fire and rescue services to respond to major flooding in England (which the devolved administrations have). · This will help provide clarity, direction and the resources necessary. Introduction

The FBU is the professional and democratic voice of firefighters and other workers within fire and rescue services across the UK. We represent the vast majority of wholetime (full-time) and retained (part-time, on-call) operational firefighters and control staff.

The FBU welcomes the work of the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee inquiry into the government’s approach to managing the risk of inland flooding in England. The union notes its previous reports into flooding and climate change and engaged with the committee during its 2017 inquiry. The government response to the committee’s most recent report, published 01 April, indicates that there is a need for major investment to combat the flood risk as portrayed by the committee.

Background to the storms

The UK experienced the wettest February on record in 2020 in England, and and the second wettest (behind February 1990) for . It has also been the fifth wettest of any calendar month since 1862 (behind only October 1903, December 1929, November 2009 and December 2015) in the records.

This winter (December, January, February) has been the fifth wettest winter on record (data back to 1862) for the UK as a whole as well as the fifth mildest. This is probably the result of climate change and such trends are expected to continue. A study on Storm Desmond, which brought widespread flooding to Northern England and Southern Scotland in 2015, found extreme weather events have been made 59% more likely by climate change.

The connection between recent flooding and climate change has also been made by key officials. John Curtin, Executive Director for Flood Risk Management at the said: “Every flooded home is a personal tragedy, and with a changing climate we will need to become more resilient to flooding.”1

The three named storms that crossed the UK during February 2020 – Ciara, Dennis and Jorge – caused devastation in many areas, with flooding most severe in , South

1 , Record breaking rainfall, 2 March 2020 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-winter-february-stats

1 Wales and the Midlands. In all affected areas, firefighters played an instrumental role in evacuating residents at flood risk and rescuing those who were left stranded. After the rainfall, they continued to assist by pumping away the water and in dealing with hidden hazards like submerged debris or lifted manhole covers.

Firefighters collaborated with other agencies to ensure homes and businesses were protected. However the FBU believes much more needs to be done to strengthen resilience. The union has collected data from fire and rescue services and from our own local officials to provide the committee with some of the emerging evidence about the February 2020 floods. No doubt further information will come to light. The FBU believes the experience of these floods underlines the need for regulatory clarity and additional resources to support the fire and rescue service response to future flooding.

Hereford and Worcester

One of the worst affected parts of the country was in Worcestershire where the river Severn burst its banks. Beales Corner flood barrier in Bewdley was overwhelmed – a barrier erected in 2007 following the Pitt review identifying a need for temporary barriers near regularly flooding rivers. Since installation they have been deployed 10 times, but only protected property on three of those occasions.2

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) worked in multi-agency teams, including the Environment Agency and voluntary groups, to coordinate the response along the Severn catchment area and sent their high volume pump (HVP) to badly affected Hylton Road. HWFRS estimate they rescued 185 people and evacuated 204 people at the peak, along with many pets and livestock. Whitchurch in the Wye Valley saw one particularly dramatic night on 18 February with firefighters leading 24 residents of a care home to safety following a flood warning.

HWFRS previously had 10 boats at their disposal and now it is reported that they only have three.

Shropshire

In a neighbouring brigade, Shropshire was also affected due to being in the Severn catchment area. Ironbridge was badly hit (as shown in drone images captured by an HWFRS drone) and had barriers swiftly installed when the warnings were announced but these were overwhelmed on 26 February, leading to mass evacuation.

The FBU is aware that not enough firefighters were available, leading to extended hours of work, inadequate breaks and general fatigue. There were also not enough dry PPE suits for use by firefighters nor were there adequate decontamination facilities, meaning relief crews were handed dirty and wet ones. Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service have 28 fire appliances in total and all were deployed either to flooding or to provide cover for crews attending flooding. One, which had been sent over the border to HWFRS, became trapped in floodwater and had to be rescued by a boat crew.

2 Environment Agency, Future Flood Risk Management September 2014 http://www.bewdleytowncouncil.org/shared/attachments.asp?f=4d31d990%2D9983%2D447a%2Da9bf%2Db3 65262be4db%2Epdf&o=Beales%2DCorner%2DDefences%2Epdf

2 Humberside

The river Aire burst its banks during February’s storms. This meant that Humberside and East Yorkshire saw significant flooding. The weather warnings came late and firefighters helped with the evacuation of 100 properties in Snaith over six hours, at night, and then moved onto evacuating 60 at risk properties in East Cowick.

Firefighters reported several instances of residents being reluctant to leave their homes and requiring convincing to do so, which added to the difficulties presented by the weather warnings coming late in the day. In Snaith one street was left with only the solar panel clad roofs of the houses visible because the water level was so high, an irony that such forms of power generation are designed to alleviate the global warming that gave rise to the floods.

South Wales

Scenes from the flooded river Taff, South Wales, shocked local people. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS) estimate they handled 2,000 incident calls on 15-17 February () and 1,000 incidents on 28 February - 1 March (storm Jorge). SWFRS has three boats, all of which were deployed in each storm, but at the peak of storm Dennis they were forced to ask SARA, a local voluntary group, for help in the form of boat assets and swift water technicians. Many firefighters worked extended hours without breaks. Rail lines and all ‘A’ roads in were closed.

The fire service in Wales has a statutory duty to respond to flooding and report an improvement in the help they can provide since this was granted. However, this has not prevented problems such as a reduction in fire control room staff. In 2016, SWFRS and Mid and West Wales FRS merged into one control room leading to a decrease in staff. Principal managers told the FBU that this meant fire control were overwhelmed during these floods - a sure indicator that the service needs investment and not cutting.

Scotland

Storm Dennis swept across Scotland and flooding was worst in Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire, either side of the river Clyde. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were forced to attend incidents in canoes in some cases, where people had become stranded in floating cars in Paisley. One striking incident was the rescue of a horse who could not regain footing due to the wet and windy conditions so required a forklift.

Statutory duty

The terms of reference for this inquiry include a point for consideration: what lessons can be learned from the recent floods about the way the Government and local authorities respond to flooding events? The FBU reiterates concerns previously expressed regarding preparation for flooding. The Civil Contingencies Act and The Fire and Rescue Services Act in England cover a range of emergencies, but a specific statutory duty to respond to major flooding does not currently exist on the statute book in England.

The fire and rescue service in Scotland has a statutory duty to respond to flooding, derived from legislation implemented in 2005. In England, the duty was considered and a draft order drawn up, only to be rejected by the government at Westminster.

The Pitt Review investigated the 2007 floods. Pitt found that “the public and rescuers were put at unnecessary risk by the current lack of clarity over who was responsible for the emergency response to flooding”. Pitt’s final report stated:

3 Recommendation 39: The Government should urgently put in place a fully funded national capability for flood rescue, with Fire and Rescue Authorities playing a leading role, underpinned, as necessary, by a statutory duty.

Exercise Watermark, the flood exercise suggested by the Pitt review, took place 4-11 March 2011. Defra’s Exercise Watermark final report (October 2011) stated:

Key recommendation 26 – The review recommends that Defra should work with the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Cabinet Office and the Welsh Government to clarify how local and national flood rescue assets should be coordinated, for example statutory duty, framework, Memorandum of Understanding, etc.

The Northern Ireland assembly government took evidence on statutory duty in 2011 and it came into force on 1 January 2012. During 2016, the Welsh government conducted an extensive consultation on implementing a flood statutory duty. The new duty came into effect in Wales on 1 April 2017.

The FBU welcomed the EFRA committee report, Future flood prevention (November 2016). In particular we supported the recommendation:

15. Place a statutory duty on Fire and Rescue Service in England and Wales to provide an emergency response to flood events. (Para 67)

The EFRA committee rightly argued that the government “commits the necessary additional funding and staff resources to support delivery of this responsibility”.

Government opposition

On 12 February 2020, Jo Stevens MP asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department “if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending a statutory duty on flood response to the Fire and Rescue Service in England in line with that in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”.

On 24 February Kit Malthouse replied:

A statutory duty for firefighters to respond to flooding is unlikely to make a significant difference to the Fire and Rescue Services which already provide effective response to flooding incidents. This has been demonstrated through the fantastic response of Fire and Rescue Services to a range of incidents in 2019 including the and Yorkshire floods and the Toddbrook Reservoir incident; and more recently in response to this year’s severe storms. Fire and Rescue Authorities in England already have the power to respond to all kinds of emergencies including flooding, under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, and placing a duty on them would remove local choice on responding to local emergencies. The Government provides the Fire and Rescue Service with additional resource to tackle flooding via the provision of High-Volume Pumps and boats.

The FBU disputes the minister’s answer. Statutory duty would provide legislative underpinning to ensure every fire and rescue service is required to respond to major flooding. Without it, particularly with cuts to funding, there is no guarantee that there will be sufficient firefighters to respond, nor the right boats and protective equipment. Firefighters

4 always respond to incidents, but the government is not listening to their concerns about the lack of resilience and the barriers they face to improving the service.

Resilience

The great lesson from flooding in recent years is that resilience matters. The public rightly expects firefighters to do their utmost when the next floods occur. However, one-in-five (20%) firefighter jobs have been cut over the last ten years. Central government funding for fire has been reduced by 31% since 2013. On the ground this has led to station closures and job cuts. In England there were 47,764 firefighters in 2009 but by 2019, with a larger population, greater flood plain habitation and increased climate change warnings, there were only 36,157 firefighters.

Regionally it seems even starker: Humberside, which as outlined above was badly affected and has been hit by floods previously this decade, had 1,054 in 2009 and 865 in 2019. Wales as a whole had 3,372 in 2009 and now has 2,840, with the South Wales region, which saw unprecedented flooding, has 1,440 firefighters having had 1,654 in 2009. These job cuts do affect the quality of a response to a flooding call-out and it is simply not acceptable to have fire appliances sent to major flooding incidents without sufficient personnel on board. This puts the safety of our communities and firefighters at risk, especially if control rooms receive other calls during the response to a flood. Resilience cannot be built half-heartedly on a shoestring budget. With an abundance of climate change warnings in place, fire and rescue services want to be ready at any moment for the next flood but this does require a reversal to the job cuts.

The FBU believes that a statutory duty on fire and rescue services in England to respond to major flooding would help ensure the necessary resources are available to tackle floods. As highlighted above, firefighters are the primary responders to flooding incidents and climate scientists are clear that such incidents are only going to increase in number. Fire and rescue services in England are the only ones in the UK without such a duty. It is time for the Westminster government to revisit this.

April 2020

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