Fire Brigades Union general secretary Steve Wright has urged ministers to introduce a statutory duty requiring fire and rescue services in England to respond to major flooding.
The FBU welcomed the government's new Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce, which is due to meet for the first time on Wednesday. Chaired by Floods Minister Emma Hardy, it will bring ministers together with fire services, the Environment Agency, the Met Office, mayoral authorities and other organisations.
Wright said the taskforce must produce practical action, warning that "proper national resilience cannot be built on goodwill alone".
England is the only UK nation without a specific statutory flood-response duty for its fire and rescue services. "It is wrong that England remains without the statutory duty already in place across the three devolved administrations," Wright said. Any new duty, he argued, must be supported by sufficient firefighters, specialist equipment and nationally recognised training.
The union says the fire service has lost around one in five firefighter posts since 2010. It argues that increasing flood risks caused by climate change make clearer responsibilities and sustained investment increasingly urgent.
The government has previously said fire authorities already have emergency-planning duties and discretionary powers to attend floods. Ministers confirmed in April that officials were considering the case for a specific statutory duty.
