Topical Questions

Part of Energy and Climate Change – in the House of Commons at 9:30 am on 19 March 2015.

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Photo of Edward Davey Edward Davey The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change 9:30, 19 March 2015

Mr Speaker, you are just too kind.

The Government, whether the lead has been taken by a different Department, such as DEFRA, or another Department, have done their best to deal with flooding issues. I speak as one of the Ministers with responsibility for flooding. We have done a lot of work in the south of London to assist with this matter, including on aspects of the Thames flood alleviation, but the real issue for me, as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, is that if we do not tackle climate change, this country will be badly hit by more flooding. We can build the flood defences we need, but in the long term if we are to reduce the cost of climate change to this country we need to tackle climate change itself.