3. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management, 2022-23 Programme of Investment

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 15 March 2022.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 2:58, 15 March 2022

Well, Llywydd, let the record show that, at 14:53 on 15 March 2022, Janet Finch-Saunders welcomed action by the Welsh Government and thanked us for what we're doing. It is a proud day that'll live in the record books for some time to come, and I appreciate that acknowledgement.

Many of the questions she raised, I think, were answered by my statement, but I'd just like to address a couple of the others. The development of schemes is the responsibility of flood risk management authorities—it is their statutory function. The Welsh Government funds proposals based on expert analysis, and that is based on how it mitigates flood management, and I'm sure Janet Finch-Saunders, as somebody who is a landlord in Llandudno, has a keen interest in seeing sand there, but that is not a primary consideration when it comes to designing flood mitigation, and we rely not on political preferences, but on an expert assessment of what will reduce flood risk, and that's how schemes are judged. We want more authorities to put forward schemes that we can judge and then put in our pipeline and deliver. The point she made about section 19 investigations is something, as she'll know, that is captured by our partnership agreement with Plaid Cymru and that we are discussing with the designated Member and will make an announcement on when we have agreement on how to take that forward. But we are committed to doing that.

I think the point to make on the broader comments is that we have a significant programme of work in this scheme to tackle the growing problem that we know climate change presents to us, and she mentions the scheme in her constituency, which is a vulnerable area on the coast, as is so much of Wales. And the need for us to join the dots here—. I'd say to Members on the Conservative benches, we're talking about dealing with the impact of climate change here, but we also have to deal with the causes of climate change. It's no good on the one hand coming to the Chamber with a list of the consequences of climate change without also being willing to stop making climate change worse, and I think they need to reflect on a bit of join-up in their policy thinking.