The environment secretary has suggested the damage done by Storm Babet was harder to predict because the rain came in from the east. Thérèse Coffey’s remarks to the Commons environment committee prompted the Lib Dems to urge her to “get a grip” and “stop blaming everyone else for her failings”. At least seven people are thought to have died during Storm Babet, with hundreds of people left homeless and about 1,250 properties in England flooded, according to the Environment Agency.
Coffey told MPs on Tuesday: “One of the things that happened particularly with Storm Babet is that we are very good, with the Met Office and the Environment Agency’s flood forecasting [centre], at predicting weather normally because most of our rain tends to come in from the west. We’ve got that pretty much down to a fine art. “This was rain coming from the other way and we don’t have quite as much experience on that. Therefore, our accuracy of predicting where such heavy rain would fall was not to the same degree as if it had been. “So the Environment Agency had moved assets from parts of the country more towards Yorkshire and the north-east and that way. But I’m conscious that there were still some places that felt they could have done with some more pumps.” The environment secretary, who visited affected residents in Retford, Nottinghamshire, on Monday, said £5.2bn had been allocated to protect homes and businesses from flooding between 2021 and 2027. But she acknowledged it looked as if her department “may not be hitting” its target of protecting 336,000 properties by 2027. Coffey told MPs a “rapid review” would be conducted after highlighting that some UK communities affected by flooding felt they could have been given more pumps to stop them from becoming submerged. Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ environment spokesperson, said: “This is a new low for an environment secretary that cannot help but say or do the wrong thing. “Thérèse Coffey blaming the wind for the government’s failure to protect homes from flooding would almost be comical if so many had not suffered so deeply at the hands of her incompetence.” • This article was amended on 6 November 2023 to clarify that the £5.2bn for flood protection is allocated for the period 2021-2027; an error during editing meant the end date was misstated.