Debate contribution: Flooding in South Down: Economic Recovery
Debate contribution by Mr Patrick Brown on .
- MLA
- Mr Patrick Brown
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 27 February 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Flooding in South Down: Economic Recovery
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4238140
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the economic recovery of businesses in South Down following the devastating flooding across the south-east of Northern Ireland last year. I thank the Minister for his attendance. I know that he has first-hand experience of the issue, being a representative for Newry city, which was also badly affected by last year's floods. I am delighted that, just this afternoon, he oversaw the opening of the second phase of flood-recovery funding, which represents a substantial package of funding schemes to help businesses to recover and rebuild. I am particularly pleased that that has coincided perfectly with this debate. Unprecedented levels of rainfall across Northern Ireland during Halloween week last year resulted in historic flooding across the country, most severely in parts of Downpatrick, Newcastle, Newry and Portadown. As the debate is focused on economic recovery in South Down, most of my comments will be focused on the impact that the floods had on businesses in Downpatrick. None of that should take away from the real impact that the floods had on many businesses in Newry and Portadown, on fishing vessels in Kilkeel or on hundreds of residents in Newcastle. The relative impact on Downpatrick and its economy cannot be overstated. The two main commercial streets in the town are Market Street and St Patrick's Avenue. For the best part of three days, half of the business premises on those streets were under four to five feet of water. Many watched in slow motion as water levels slowly crept up throughout the Thursday and Friday of that week. Some were able to remove stock and property from their stores. Some were told incorrectly by public agencies that the water levels probably would not get any higher and that they did not need to worry, and not a single business received any warning or alert that flooding was likely, despite the near full week of rain that preceded it.
I can see colleagues in the Chamber from all parties who were on the ground as that was happening in real time. We were watching the water level rise and scrambling to do whatever we could to help, whether that was lifting sandbags, coordinating with agencies and the public, helping people move belongings and much more. It was a surreal week, full of tragedy for those who experienced significant damage to their homes and livelihoods. However, it was also one that brought out the best in people, as everyone, including politicians, business owners, residents, council workers, the Fire Service, DFI employees and local farmers, banded together to help each other through an unprecedented natural disaster. I have particular memories of standing waist-deep in dirty, oil-filled water with the Minister's colleague Chris Hazzard MP, helping a local business, Making Memories for You, which sells communion dresses, carry their precious stock out of the shop to safety. I worked with DUP councillor Alan Lewis, who, despite not representing Downpatrick district electoral area, travelled to help clear out debris and rescue what stock we could from JJ Donnelly Menswear after the floodwater had receded. Indeed, together with SDLP colleagues, I helped Tom's Wine Barrel move its stock to a safer location. Local politicians were not immune from the impact of the floods, with my constituency office flooding. However, any damage there paled in comparison with what many others experienced. I watched our local community come together in the clean-up effort and beyond to support and rally around our local business community and saw first-hand the trauma experienced by those who, in a matter of hours, had seen their livelihoods literally washed away, with no idea whether they would get any support to help them rebuild. The mental health impact of that cannot be overstated. Whilst we are talking today about economic recovery, many people have rightly compared the loss of a family business to the loss of a friend or relative. Regardless of any financial package, the trauma experienced during those few days will stay with many people for a long time. Incredible resilience has been shown by the entire Downpatrick community, but that resilience has been tested time and time again as people have had to wait almost four months for the latest funding round to open. I know that that is not the Minister's fault and that he has moved to realise the second phase as quickly as possible since coming into office. It is a fact, however, that businesses in my constituency and in the Minister's should never have had to go with a begging bowl to a Tory Secretary of State asking for bits and pieces of reappropriated funding to be packaged together as a flood relief fund. Instead, we should have had locally accountable Ministers on the ground on day 1 of the flooding, working together to develop an adequate and urgent flood relief fund. I have no doubt that the absence of an Executive contributed to the insecurity and worry experienced by many during and after the floods. Now that the Executive have been restored, we can ensure that that never happens again. We are, at any time, just a few days of heavy rainfall away from the same disaster as we saw last year, which represents an existential and ever-present threat to our local economy. Our flood defences in Downpatrick are still inadequate. Our main river, the Quoile, remains choked and blocked with toxic sludge and silt from years of neglect and mismanagement. Our storm water infrastructure is totally insufficient, and nothing tangible has been done to establish local flood resilience networks or an early warning system. With the constant threat of climate change, we must prepare our communities, our economy and our infrastructure for more natural disasters like this and ensure that those who have already spent hundreds of thousands of pounds rebuilding their businesses have not done so in vain. Wider questions must also be asked about how flooding this severe happened. Could we have done anything to stop it or minimise its impact? I know that, in Newry, there are questions over how the canal flooded, given that it is basically impossible for canals to flood if managed properly. Could targeted clearance and dredging of the River Quoile have increased its capacity, reducing the amount of water that flowed into the town? I appreciate that those are questions for another day and another Minister, and I welcome the commitment from DFI Rivers to lead a review of what happened and review the adequacy of flood defences in the area. I turn to the announcement from the Minister last week and Newry, Mourne and Down District Council opening applications for the next round of funding today. I know that there will be many businesses in my constituency breathing a deep sigh of relief that further help is on its way. The fund is generous — up to £100,000, based on an assessment of losses — and I know from having personally surveyed all businesses impacted by flooding in Downpatrick that that will be adequate to cover losses in the vast majority of cases. There will always be exceptions, however, and it is incredibly difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all scheme of that nature. I hope that the Minister will remain flexible and open-minded when criteria, well intentioned as they may be, do not always align with realities on the ground. Unfortunately, that was the case with the first phase of £7,500 grants that were developed by departmental officials soon after the flooding. While they provided a valuable cash injection for some, many were left exasperated and upset when they were declined for that grant for a variety of reasons, without any appeals process. I will give just a few examples from Downpatrick. Flooded businesses that had just taken on a premises, were paying rates and had planned to open literally the next week did not qualify. Businesses that had not received a rates bill due to a Land and Property Services (LPS) administrative error and were therefore judged as not having paid rates did not qualify for the grant, nor did businesses that had flood insurance but faced huge excesses, deductions or gaps in cover. Most sports and non-trading charities did not get a penny either. There was a significant underspend in that first phase, which perhaps reflected the overly conservative and rigid criteria set out by the Department. That is why I asked the Minister yesterday about his plans for any underspend in the next phase. I welcome his response that he intends to see the full £15 million invested in economic recovery, and, indeed, I agree with him that we could use much more. It must be recognised that, in a small number of cases, even £100,000 will be insufficient to cover losses. I can think, for example, of a pub and a dentist in Downpatrick that have several hundred thousand pounds' worth of documented losses and no insurance and, indeed, of the well-publicised case of Downpatrick and County Down Railway, which has estimated losses of £2·3 million but is insured only for £250,000. Going by the criteria and the announcement last week, all that the railway will receive now is £5,000, which is a drop in the ocean, all things considered. I welcome, however, the fact that the second phase of funding seeks to address a number of the issues that have been raised consistently by the business community and elected representatives regarding previous exclusions, not least the provision of two new hardship schemes, including a £2,500 grant for businesses that did not flood but were forced to close or lost out on income due to flood-related disruption and a new £5,000 grant for businesses and non-domestic properties previously excluded from funding. Whilst, in some cases, those schemes will not go far enough, they are a good start and will provide a much-needed cash injection for Downpatrick and other impacted areas. I know that, today, many businesses will be pulling together their paperwork to apply for the £100,000 grants and that, as elected representatives, we will all stand ready to support them through that process. I note that the deadline for applications is 22 March, which is, hopefully, a suitable deadline to give businesses enough time to apply, whilst ensuring that funding can be distributed quickly and efficiently. On that point, I would take the opportunity to ask the Minister for indicative time frames on when he expects the first payments under the £100,000 scheme to be made and when the parallel £5,000 and £2,500 schemes are likely to open for applications. In addition to support for individual businesses, there remains an urgent need to invest in wider regeneration and recovery across flood-hit towns. Many of the larger chain stores that help to drive footfall have closed permanently or have not given a date for reopening. Downpatrick has long suffered from underinvestment, with the council planning to spend tens of millions on regeneration and capital projects in Newry and Newcastle but having delivered no major investment in recent times for Downpatrick. Often, Downpatrick feels like a forgotten town and rightly so. Take, for example, the £180,000 that was given to the council by the Department for Communities immediately after the flooding to aid recovery in Downpatrick and Newry. Most of it is being spent on St Patrick's Day parades, events that the council has, until this year, funded itself. Nothing new is being done to help to support businesses to bounce back. More must be done by the Minister's Department and others if we are to avoid the existential collapse of the local economy in the county town of Down. We must ensure that departmental funding is being spent where it is needed most. Therefore, I kindly ask the Minister to outline his Department's plans to ensure the medium-to-long-term recovery and regeneration of towns that have been devastated by flooding.
1,983 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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