Minister guarantees to spend £250m to high up England’s flood defences | Flooding

Ministers are topping up flood defence funding in England to a “file” £2.65bn, after accusing the earlier authorities of “placing lives in danger” by under-spending.

An additional £250m is being pledged on high of the £2.4bn beforehand introduced, to shore up defences and shield an additional 66,500 properties from flooding over a two-year interval, the Division for Atmosphere, Meals and Rural Affairs (Defra) mentioned.

At a flood reduction scheme close to her Hull constituency, the floods minister, Emma Hardy, mentioned the Conservative authorities’s lack of funding was a “dereliction of obligation”.

“We inherited flood property within the worst situation on file, which I feel is arguably a dereliction of obligation of the final authorities,” she mentioned.

“The primary obligation of any authorities is to guard its residents, they usually’re failing to guard residents from flooding, placing lives in danger, placing companies in danger, placing houses in danger. So what we’re saying is we want this large improve within the funds to £2.65bn.”

Damaging storms lately had additionally affected the standard of flood defence schemes, the federal government mentioned, leaving many in want of pressing restore. Others wanted an improve as a result of they had been constructed when the affect of the local weather disaster was not as well-known.

A complete of 31 new tasks are being given the inexperienced gentle, whereas £36m is being spent in 2025 to undertake pressing repairs to defences broken throughout excessive flooding occasions.

Asserting the brand new funding, the federal government acknowledged: “In addition to defending households from the devastation of flooding, the funding helps financial development by defending companies, supporting jobs, and supporting a steady financial system within the face of the growing threat of flooding on account of local weather change.

“It’ll additionally shield farmland which has been badly hit by latest storms, in flip serving to to safeguard farm companies and farmers’ earnings.”

Farmers affected by extreme climate between October 2023 and March 2024 have been compensated to the tune of greater than £57m, Defra has reported. The farming restoration fund has supported 12,700 companies to cowl the price of restoring their farmland.

With local weather breakdown contributing to extra extremes in climate and extra frequent flooding, extra houses and companies are anticipated to be flooded within the coming years.

When requested about whether or not it was attainable to easily not construct houses in areas liable to flooding, Hardy, who beforehand labored in a college that was badly flooded, mentioned that might imply cities similar to Hull wouldn’t be capable to construct something in any respect.

She recommended: “If we can’t construct on a flood plain then clearly that’s finest. However there are methods of constructing that imply houses are usually not liable to elevated flooding and, extra importantly, don’t improve the chance of flooding elsewhere.”

Whereas the cash was largely not earmarked for flood prevention schemes on the supply, similar to upland restoration, Hardy mentioned the federal government was additionally reviewing how the “flood components” was calculated, which is used to allocate cash based mostly on the variety of properties that might be protected.

This is able to imply schemes which have a wider good, similar to pure flood administration, can be extra readily funded.

“It’s fairly troublesome with pure flood administration to provide you with a hard-edged calculation on what number of properties are protected,” she mentioned.

The shadow setting secretary, Victoria Atkins, mentioned: “In authorities, the Conservatives invested file quantities of cash in flood defences and coastal erosion. To say in any other case is wholly unfaithful.

“Steve Reed has not instructed us the place this newest cash has come from, whether or not it’s in actual fact a repackaging of cash invested by a Conservative authorities, or how he intends to supply tailor-made assist to often flooded communities.”