At today’s session of the Environmental Audit Committee, I had the opportunity to put questions to: Professor Stephen Belcher (Chief of Science and Technology at Met Office), Professor Jim Hall (Commissioner at National Infrastructure Commission), Margaret Read (Director of Policy at National Infrastructure Commission), Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE (Chair of the Adaptation Committee at Climate Change Committee) and Richard Millar (Head of Adaptation at Climate Change Committee), as well as other experts earlier in the day.

I asked the panel about our broken models of land and water ownership and pointed to the example of Thames Water to highlight the fact that our current models are unfit for a fight against the climate crisis.

I asked why these ownership models are rarely questioned.

Baroness Brown told me that we urgently need a land use strategy in the UK. She went on to say that whilst it’s nice to think we can leave this planning to the markets, it is clear that we need a more strategic approach to our targets in adapting to climate change, one where we can encourage the owners of land and water to deliver what is needed.

Watch my question below.