Their pleas follow Storm Babet which killed seven people and caused severe damage to homes and businesses. Jason McCartney MP said: “Storm Babet has shown the horrific impact of flooding on communities, wrecking family homes, destroying local businesses and throwing infrastructure into chaos.
“As the effects of climate change intensify, flooding will only become more frequent and fierce across the UK. We must act now if we are to limit the damage.”
Peter Aldous, Tory MP for Waveney, warned his constituency is particularly vulnerable to flooding, which means climate change adds “more worry and uncertainty for families and businesses”.
He said: “Storm Babet has caused devastating flooding across many parts of the country, damaging people’s homes and livelihoods.
“As global temperatures continue to rise, the chance of more intense rainfall and flooding rises too. The MPs backed a range of measures to slash emissions and reduce risks of flooding.
Mr McCartney said: “The natural world is a natural ally as we adapt to climate change. There are a plethora of ways to restore nature whilst building our resilience to flooding at the same time.
“Healthy peatlands act as natural flood defences, absorbing and slowing the flow of water before it reaches urban areas. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDs), which mimic nature, have also been shown to protect new homes from flooding by slowing run-off into sewers and rivers.
“The government has made some important progress, with SuDs now required in all new homes and dedicated funding to restore our precious peatlands. But with a changing climate we need to keep investing in our resilience.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said they are investing a record £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect hundreds of thousands of properties.
Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, told how flooding is a problem that has blighted communities across the UK for generations.
At least 51 flash floods have hit cities and towns in the last 15 years, causing significant harm to properties, businesses, public services, and infrastructure.
Mr Hall said: “Flooding also harms crops, with negative impacts on our food security. Flooding is only going to get worse as a result of climate change, so the government needs to step up action to protect households, the economy, and our environment from its impacts.”
Labour this week said that it would create a flood resilience taskforce that would meet before every winter and would co-ordinate preparation between the Government, local councils and emergency services.
The party said that the new body would ensure vulnerable areas are identified in advance, as well as providing accountability for progress on flood prevention.
But the Conservatives said Labour had “copy and pasted” the action the Government was already taking, in a dig at shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves who is facing accusations of apparent plagiarism in her new book.
The opposition party claimed that ministers’ inaction on the issue has cost the economy nearly £4 billion since 2010 across four major floods, accusing the Conservatives of “complacency”.
A Tory spokesman said: “The Government already has a series of committees and taskforces – including Cobra itself – to monitor and tackle flooding including: the Flood Forecasting Centre, the National Flood Advisory Service, the National Situation Centre, the National Flood Response Centre and local resilience forums.”
Defra said: “Ahead of Storm Babet, we stood up the National Flood Response Centre which coordinated cross-agency and government operations to tackle the floods.
“These preparations, along with the efforts of Environment Agency staff and other partners on the ground, helped to protect over 96,000 properties from flooding.
