ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now it doesn’t rain but it pours, that’s as true of politics perhaps as it is of the weather at the moment with more rain forecast to be on the way and further flooding predicted in places, the government is under attack for its cuts to the Environment Agency. In a moment I’ll speak to the Shadow Environment Secretary, Maria Eagle, about that. Let’s say a very good morning then to Maria Eagles, good to see you here. You think the government hasn’t done enough in terms of preparedness and perhaps is endangering areas at risk of flooding in the future through cuts to the Environment Agency?

MARIA EAGLE: First of all I’d like to give huge thanks to the emergency services who have been doing a great job, including staff from the Environment Agency, preparing people over the last few days and over the whole holiday actually and also my sympathy to the people that have been affected, at least 130,000 people flooded out in the last ten days and it is an horrendous experience, particularly over holidays. Never good but even worse over Christmas.

DM: That almost goes without saying but is there anything the government could or should have done to alleviate some of those problems?

MARIA EAGLE: Well I think they have got real questions to answer. The question is whether Own Patterson’s climate change scepticism – remember he said that Britain would benefit from climate change – has blinded him to the concerns of increasing risk of flooding and therefore the hasn’t protected projects like he might.

DM: So you put these storms down to climate change?

MARIA EAGLE: I think the climate change science indicates that we’re likely to see increasing incidence of more extreme weather.

DM: Over a period of time but these storms?

MARIA EAGLE: Over a period of time. I don’t think you can say with any one particular storm that it is or it isn’t but the point is that climate change science suggests that we’re going to be seeing increasing numbers of these extreme incidents – floods and droughts in the same year, we’ve seen that – and over this parliament the government have cut flood defences by over £100 million in real terms. So it’s all very well the Prime Minister today talking about investment in the future, those 130,000 people have been affected now and they want to know why there has been this big cut in support during this parliament.

DM: Is this a sanctioned spending pledge from Labour, you wouldn’t go for those cuts and you’ve got to add this to your house building programme, you want to build hundreds of thousands of houses and some of them will be built in areas which could be affected by floods which means you’ll have to spend a lot more on flood defences.

MARIA EAGLE: Let’s be clear, Dermot, we have said very clearly that we are not going to be spending more than the current government have set out in day to day spending. We have started a zero based review into priorities and I am doing that in the DEFRA budget, looking at every – I’ve started that process – looking at every government body, every quango to see where we can get the best spending decisions made and I think it is important that we prioritise issues that perhaps the current government have neglected and …

DM: So flood defences ring-fenced?

MARIA EAGLE: No, no, don’t put words into my mouth.

DM: I’m asking, it was a question.

MARIA EAGLE: What I’ve said is that I’m undertaking that process and we will of course by the next election have a manifesto which sets out precisely what our position is but the zero based review is looking line by line at spending and what I’ve said is that I am not a climate change sceptic, unlike Owen Patterson I don’t think climate change is benefitting Britain. I will be looking much more closely at…

DM: Britain is not on its own when it comes to dealing with climate change, it is a very small part of that but we may well get the storms as a result of it, so what are you saying then about flood defences just to be very clear, we might cut them a little bit, we won’t cut them at all?

MARIA EAGLE: No, they have to be given much higher priority in the DEFRA budget and the issue is during this parliament, which is what matters to people who are being flooded now, there has been a cut in both capital and revenue spending in real terms and by the end of this parliament they will be lower than they were at the beginning of this parliament. That is something that Owen Patterson has allowed to happen and has facilitated, perhaps in part because he doesn’t really believe that these things should have the priority that I think they should have.

DM: Perhaps he believes it is just the weather and that you can’t blame the government for the weather can you? And you can’t indeed say if you have bought a house or live in an area which you know is prone to flooding that you need a lot of help from the government, you know you go into it with your eyes wide open.

MARIA EAGLE: There is currently going through parliament the Water Bill which will introduce some help to get insurance for people who are frequently flooded, householders who are frequently flooded but that doesn’t come into effect until the next parliament. This was something that was set out by Labour in the last parliament and I think that Owen Patterson and the government have not been focused on this issue and the way that …

DM: But you are asking for a taxpayer subsidy there aren’t you because insurance is defined as …

MARIA EAGLE: No, no, it’s not a taxpayer subsidy.

DM: Insurance is defined as something which might happen and if you live on a flood plain it will happen eventually. Why would you be insured?

MARIA EAGLE: It is not a taxpayer subsidy. This is about people who can’t get insurance because they have already been flooded and in fact the lady in Yalding who talked to the Prime Minister when he visited said that she felt betrayed that people like her have been let down because the government have not focused on getting the …

DM: But if your house burns down and you don’t have insurance, you can’t insure it against fire.

MARIA EAGLE: This is not about not having insurance, it’s about not being allowed to have insurance because you’ve already been flooded, not being offered insurance. It’s a scheme that …

DM: But why would any company offer you insurance? It’s all about risk, actuaries assess the risk.

MARIA EAGLE: But it’s a scheme that is organised by the insurance companies to help those who thus far can’t get insurance to access it because it’s not fair to keep people, for people to keep being flooded but not get any insurance so it is a scheme about that which will assist people to get insurance and will spread the risk across more insurance companies. Now that’s something that should be focused on more urgently. The Committee on Climate Change has made it clear that the risk from flooding is increasing yet a lot of those increased risks are not taken into account in this scheme that is being legislated.

DM: Just very quickly, if Labour get their way, get into power and start building hundreds and thousands of new houses, the flood defence budget will have to go up to protect some of them.

MARIA EAGLE: Well I think we have to make sure that flood protection is at appropriate levels and of course building new houses has to take that into account so I will have to fight my corner along with other Ministers looking at budgets into the future.

DM: Okay, thank you very much for that. Maria Eagle, the Shadow Environment Secretary there.