Published yesterday, the Pitt Review into the floods of Summer 2007 offers a comprehensive assessment of what went wrong, what should be done better and how to go about it. Drawing on over 1000 written submissions and the experiences of affected communities, it numbers a mere 462 pages and offers 92 recommendations.

Some general themes raised:

1.The equity/uniformity of risk - raising the importance of flooding as a risk, so it is viewed with the same seriousness as terrorism and pandemic flu. The Review recommends setting up a separate Cabinet Committee specific to flooding to achieve this (Executive Summary para 131, Recommendation 87).

2. Where does the responsibility for building (and maintaining) flood resilience lie, as well as for coordinating response mechanisms in the event  of a flood and the recovery operations after it? The Review advocates a clearer definition of responsibility, so as to foster better leadership at local and national levels. (ES. paras 33-35, 62, 129, Rc 15 and Chapter 26).

3. A need for greater openness and transparency in building community resilience - in a telling comment from the Review's press release, Sir Michael Pitt is quoted as saying: '[w]e need to be more willing to tell people the truth about risk' . Enough said.


Michael Harvey

michael.harvey@demos.co.uk

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