We now move to the short debate. If Members are leaving the Chamber, please do so quickly and quietly. So, we now move to the short debate, and I call on Joyce Watson to speak on the topic that she has chosen. Joyce Watson.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I will be speaking today about surface water flooding and why, in short, we need more gardens and fewer patios. I look forward to hearing from my colleague for Swansea East, Mike Hedges, and from the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs. It was one of the Cabinet Secretary’s predecessors, Jane Davidson, when she was the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, that I first lobbied on this particular topic, and it was in the wake of the devastating floods of 2007 and the Pitt review that followed.

Suzy Davies took the Chair.

In 2009, the Assembly approved my proposal to introduce a backbench Bill, or what was known then as a legislative competence Order, to deal with flooding by curbing the use of hard surfaces around people’s homes. That was one of the main recommendations of the Pitt review, given that almost 80 per cent of flooding was caused by surface water flooding, not by rivers overrunning and not by seas reaching the coastline. At the time, the UK Government was bringing forward its own legislation—the Flood and Water Management Bill—that overlapped with my LCO, so it fell by the wayside, but my interest did not fall by the wayside and neither has the problem.

Just a couple of weeks ago, flash flooding once again disrupted communities across my region. Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service crews were called to 12 incidents in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. There were yellow weather warnings for the upper and lower Teifi, as well as the Taff and Cynon. Torrential overnight rain flooded parts of Talsarn, Lampeter, Llandysul and Newquay, and the Teifi’s flood peak travelled downstream between Llanfair and Glan Teifi and the ford near Talgarth school was closed. Fields turned into floodplains affecting ponies and other livestock. There was traffic chaos on the A486, the A487, the A475 in Ceredigion and the B4333 between Aberporth and Newcastle Emlyn, as well as the A485 in Carmarthenshire and all the back roads around Beulah. And, there was flash flooding in north Pembrokeshire from St Dogmaels and Abercych to Llanfyrnach.

I don’t like to be a doomsayer, but it is only September. I was prompted to revisit the idea of the legislative route by a column that I read very recently in ‘The Guardian’ by Michele Hanson, entitled ‘Why it’s time to ban concrete in front gardens’. In it, she observed how a drive from London to Sussex had changed in the past 25 years, and I quote from it. She says that,

‘the lovely green front gardens had nearly all disappeared and been turned into parking bays.’

She said it’s a scene that many of us here will recognise from our own communities, with more and more patios and conservatories paved over for gardens and also for parking. Nearly 5 million front gardens in the UK are now completely paved over and more and more disappear every single year.

Actually, one of the first things that I did when I moved into my house 25 years ago was dig up the driveway and I planted a front garden with shrubs and flowers. Michele Hanson did exactly the same. She says that she

‘used to have a concrete front garden, with no run-off, which flooded in heavy rains’.

So she dug it out and planted magnolia and hollyhocks, and the flooding stopped. So, why not make it mandatory, she says,

‘Better to have a sensible nanny state than a catastrophically flooded one. Do it yourself’, she proposes,

‘or the council nips round with a pneumatic drill and does it for you.’

Now, I’m not actually going quite that far today in what I’m proposing, however, I do think she has a point. The effect of this—[Inaudible.]—is more rainwater ending up in sewers and drains, washing pollutants into our water courses. I spoke last week at the Assembly question time about river pollution from livestock farms going too often unpunished, and flash flooding creates exactly the same problem. But it’s made worse by our changing weather patterns: the sort of very intense heavy downpours that we experience, the wetter winters that we have, and the estimates from climate scientists predicting that there will be only an increase in extreme rainfall over the next few decades.

So, I’d like this opportunity to revisit my original LCO, and to look at what has changed since 2009, and why hasn’t and whether the Assembly should look afresh at the need for tougher laws. And I think the most notable change in the intervening years has been the regulations that apply to building work that can be done without planning permission. In September 2013, new regulations did come into force in Wales restricting the type of material that can be used to cover the land in front of your house if it leads to a highway—and highways include public roads, footpaths, bridleways, and byways—but that basically brought us in line with England, where this had been the rule for a number of years.

So, now, if you do want to lay or replace a hard surface at the front of your house, you have to use permeable or porous materials that allow water to soak away, or direct water from a hard surface like concrete to a permeable or porous area at the front of the house. But you are allowed to replace or repair up to 5 sq m of the existing hard surface without those restrictions, and I would suggest that, for most small, mid-terraced houses, that will result in those concrete and hard surfaces existing forever more. But there are no restrictions on laying patios or concrete paths and other areas of hard-standing at the back of your house—none whatsoever.

I think, if we seriously want to do something about this, we really need to reconsider this oversight, because it is the case that most people have more land to the back of their houses than they do to the front. I think that we could, through regulation or beefing up the SuDS, or sustainable drainage, aspects of the 2015 Water Strategy for Wales, or by offering incentives to owners—carrots, as opposed to sticks. And I think that there would be public support for garden-greening proposals. Look at how, in recent years, people have started to recognise the importance of gardens as habitats for pollinators, for birds, and other wildlife. Across Britain, domestic gardens account for nearly 20 per cent of urban land use. So, there’s a huge potential resource for delivering environmental goods.

On the one hand, if we continue to concrete over more and more of that space, we are doing big environmental damage—. It’s a matter of the future generations. We all have a responsibility to look after our own patch, but there is a role for Government as well. But, this Government, and successive Welsh Labour Governments, have prioritised flood prevention investment, with more than £240 million since 2012, and a further £47 million from European funding. And, thanks to that money, more than 12,000 properties across Wales are more secure, and, thanks to the deal the Welsh Government struck four years ago with the insurance industry, 64,000 properties at risk of flooding are guaranteed cover for 20 years, with a premium cap. That compares very favourably with what has happened in England.

Earlier this year, in May, the Welsh Government published recommended non-statutory standards for sustainable drainage for designers, property developers, local authorities, and other interested parties, and it is considering whether to make those binding, as set out under Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2020. There are some ambitious projects that are already reducing surface water, and you will have heard many times me referring to the RainScape project in Llanelli. That had an investment of £113 million, and it’s an excellent collaboration between Natural Resources Wales and Dŵr Cymru, and there are other projects, like Greener Grangetown. So, I do think that the time has come for us to recognise that the back garden does need to be looked at and that we can create a habitat that will sustain us for the future.

First of all, can I agree with everything Joyce Watson has said and thank her for allowing me a minute in this debate, but, more importantly, for raising this incredibly important issue? I want to highlight the importance of trees and bushes. Can I start with a short anecdote? There was a house in my constituency that had never had a problem with water, but, one year, the front step turned into a waterfall, and I mean that quite literally—the water was coming down as if it was a waterfall. What had changed? Trees and bushes had been removed from behind the house, so what you then had was the water coming down. I believe we need to plant far more trees and bushes to soak up the water before it starts making its way down to areas where it is creating problems. When you take the bushes away and you take the trees away, you lead to the reverse, which is the rain turns into mud and you get mud sliding down. I live in a constituency that is exceptionally hilly; I think anybody in Swansea would probably say Swansea was exceptionally hilly. It’s very important we make sure that we have trees and bushes there. Am I a hypocrite? No, because, if you go into my front garden, you will see a hedge and one large tree.

I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs to reply to the debate.

Thank you very much, Chair. I too would like to thank Joyce Watson for choosing this topic as her short debate this week. We know that flash flooding can have devastating effects on the lives of those affected and that’s why it is a priority area of work for this Government. This is reflected in our commitment, through ‘Taking Wales Forward’, to continue to invest in flood defence work and take further action to better manage water in our environment. Research shows future climate change will bring increased sea levels, more intense storms, which will also lead to more flash flooding. Therefore, we need to continue to work together to reduce this risk, help communities adapt, and to build our resilience.

Earlier this month, we saw a number of isolated flood events as a result of flash flooding in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion and Gwynedd. I do offer my sympathy to those people who have been affected and had their homes flooded. So, we continue to support local authorities and Natural Resources Wales to build resilience to such events. I recently announced additional £1.2 million revenue funding for local authorities and NRW to support work in carrying out asset inspections and maintenance before the winter, so that we can ensure that we do absolutely remain resilient to flooding. This vital flood-risk management work ensures assets continue to function effectively in severe weather conditions, and I’m pleased the take-up has been so positive.

So, we now have a four-year capital settlement, which means, over the lifetime of this Government, we will invest over £144 million capital with local authorities and NRW to reduce the risk of flooding and coastal erosion. Together with the coastal risk management programme, this means a potential investment of £256 million through our flood programmes. This financial year will see significant schemes in Boverton, St Asaph, Little Haven, and Pontarddulais complete, which will reduce the risk of flooding to over 800 properties. I also committed £1 million of annual flood budgets for local authorities earlier this year to carry out small-scale and essential maintenance work. I think the grant really was welcomed by local authorities, because they recognise that whilst the big, high-value schemes are, of course, vital—. I think smaller works are just as important at a local level, particularly if we are going to reduce the risk of flash flooding.

So, remaining resilient to flood events is not just about our investment in assets, it also includes the vital work NRW and local authorities do with communities to make them aware of the risks they face and how they can prepare.

Joyce Watson made a particular point about amendments that were made to permitted development rights to allow only porous surfaces in front gardens without the need to apply for planning permission. We know this has encouraged the use of types of surfaces that then help reduce run-off and reduce risk of flooding to properties. You’re quite right: that doesn’t apply to the rear of buildings. Neither does it apply to the side of buildings. So, it’s something that I would certainly be very happy to look at.

Mike Hedges raises the point that we should be planting more trees. I cannot disagree with you on that, Mike, and, certainly, I think it’s a discussion that I’m having. I don’t think we are planting enough trees. I’ve been in front of the committee that you chair, Mike, around this issue. We need more trees for many reasons, and this, clearly, is one of them.

Part of our approach to flood-risk management in Wales is the acknowledgement of what the natural environment can do in holding back water, minimising run-off, and reducing the amount of water to enter our rivers during rainfall events. So, schemes such as tree planting, the creation of storage areas, and better use of sustainable drainage, can all help reduce the risk of flash flooding, so we are encouraging more natural flood-risk management through our national strategy for flood and coastal erosion risk management in Wales. In addition, Members will be aware of my recently published natural resources policy and that, again, outlines opportunities to manage flooding using such techniques. However, unfortunately, we know we can’t stop all flash flooding, but we can put maintenance schemes and processes in place to reduce the likelihood of them happening, and work with nature to manage water more effectively, both in our urban and rural environments.

Thank you. That brings today’s proceedings to close.

The meeting ended at 17:26.