The Environment Agency has spent all of the £7.65 million allocated for use in 2016/17. The majority of this funding has been used to purchase around 20 miles of temporary flood barrier, which increases the Environment Agency’s overall holding to around 25 miles. The Environment Agency has also doubled their stock of sandbags from 250,000 to 500,000 and purchased two additional Incident Command Vehicles.

The Environment Agency will use the remainder of the funding in 2017/18 to purchase an additional 70 pumps and ancillary equipment, three further Incident Command Vehicles and storage and logistics capabilities.

Good progress is being made on the implementation of the National Flood Resilience Review recommendations. All infrastructure companies have completed their initial assessments of their vulnerable sites for suitability for temporary flood defences and as a result companies are investing heavily in resilience measures to ensure continuity of supply this winter. This includes putting in place or having deployment plans for temporary defences, and other contingency measures such as rezoning of water supplies and the use of mobile telecommunications cells to reduce the risk of disruption of services. Further to this, the Government is working with utility companies to improve permanent defences in the longer term.

Good progress is being made on the implementation of the National Flood Resilience Review recommendations. All infrastructure companies have completed their initial assessments of their vulnerable sites for suitability for temporary flood defences and as a result companies are investing heavily in resilience measures to ensure continuity of supply this winter. This includes putting in place or having deployment plans for temporary defences, and other contingency measures such as rezoning of water supplies and the use of mobile telecommunications cells to reduce the risk of disruption of services. Further to this, the Government is working with utility companies to improve permanent defences in the longer term.

Good progress is being made on the implementation of the National Flood Resilience Review recommendations. All infrastructure companies have completed their initial assessments of their vulnerable sites for suitability for temporary flood defences and as a result companies are investing heavily in resilience measures to ensure continuity of supply this winter. This includes putting in place or having deployment plans for temporary defences, and other contingency measures such as rezoning of water supplies and the use of mobile telecommunications cells to reduce the risk of disruption of services. Further to this, the Government is working with utility companies to improve permanent defences in the longer term.

The removal of weirs in the River Exe is not part of the Environment Agency’s scheme to better protect the communities in the city of Exeter from flooding.

The option of removal of the three weirs at Exwick, Cowley and Pynes is being examined by Network Rail as the last stage of its work to help protect the railway at Cowley Bridge Junction (just north of Exeter) from flooding from the rivers Exe, Culm and Creedy. Subject to a detailed assessment of the impact of such a scheme of the wider area to be carried out by Network Rail, consent from the Environment Agency and funding availability, a weir scheme could follow on from work to widen and improve the existing flood culvert during 2017 and install an additional culvert in 2018.

The Department did not set a target for the amount of partnership funding for flood protection to be raised between 2011 and March 2015, and no annual target has been set for the period from April 2015. The target for the whole six year period from April 2015 to March 2021 is to raise the equivalent of at least an additional 15 per cent of the total capital allocation from partnership funding on top of Government’s contribution.

The partnership funding each year since 2011:

2011/12 = £39 million

2012/13 = £40 million

2013/14 = £83 million

2014/15 = £79 million

2015/16 = £74 million

The above figures are rounded down to the nearest million and include expenditure of funds raised by Regional Flood and Coastal Committees through local levy.

ResilienceDirect is the UKs secure and free to use web-based platform for the Resilience Community. ResilienceDirect enables the sharing of real time information across all category 1 and 2 emergency responders, government departments and other key agencies, including the Devolved Administrations, for emergency planning, response and recovery. The database holds a total of 164,049 Environment Agency flood defence assets, such as walls, embankments and flood gates, which operate together to manage flood risk in England. Currently there are over 20,000 users.

The Department did not set a target for the amount of partnership funding for flood protection to be raised between 2011 and March 2015, and no annual target has been set for the period from April 2015. The target for the whole six year period from April 2015 to March 2021 is to raise the equivalent of at least an additional 15 per cent of the total capital allocation from partnership funding on top of Government’s contribution.

The partnership funding each year since 2011:

2011/12 = £39 million

2012/13 = £40 million

2013/14 = £83 million

2014/15 = £79 million

2015/16 = £74 million

The above figures are rounded down to the nearest million and include expenditure of funds raised by Regional Flood and Coastal Committees through local levy.

All government resource spending allocated to flood risk management in each of the last six years and for the current financial year can be found in the Central Government Funding for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management in England publication, which is available on the gov.uk website or via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/549093/Funding_for_Flood_and_Coastal_Erosion_in_England_Sep_2016.pdf

The Environment Agency receives spending information from public authorities on both their own flood and coastal risk management projects and the Environment Agency projects to which they contribute.

This information is grouped into “public contributions” for each scheme, enabling the Environment Agency to have an overview of partnership funding available for flood and coastal risk management projects since 2011. Contributions are however not broken down by public authority and the Environment Agency does not hold nationally a list of all public authorities that have provided partnership funding.

Around 300 public authorities, including Local Authorities, Highways Authorities and Internal Drainage Boards, are expected to deliver projects between April 2015 and March 2021. Over this period they are expected to contribute around £300 million in public contributions. This is in addition to other funding sources such as contributions from the private sector and local levy funding.

To reduce the risk of flooding to a further 300,000 homes as part of the flood and coastal erosion risk management investment programme 2015 to 2021, the Environment Agency expects currently that 1 per cent of the partnership funding contributions required will come from private sources. The Environment Agency continues to work in partnership with the private sector and expect that further contributions will be secured as the programme progresses.

Lead Local Flood Authorities report their progress with local flood risk management strategies annually. As of 31 March 2016 out of the 152 Lead Local Flood Authorities in England,114 had completed and published their strategy and 26 had completed or were undergoing public consultation on their draft. Of the remaining 12, we have been monitoring their progress and encouraging to complete as quickly as possible.

It is not currently possible to provide an estimate of the number of companies and unincorporated businesses receiving tax relief on these contributions as this could only be provided at disproportionate cost. As the measure came into effect from 1 January 2015, HM Revenue and Customs does not currently hold the necessary information collated in a way that would be able to generate the requested estimates.

In Lancashire, a total of £91.9 million has been allocated to flood and coastal risk management schemes in the Government’s six year capital investment programme between 2016 and 2021.

The table below summarises the number of applications the department has received from Lancaster City Council, Lancashire County Council and the Environment Agency in partnership with Lancaster City Council since December 2015.

The table below indicates the flood risk management schemes in Leeds, Cumbria, Calder Valley and York that were allocated funding from the £150 million investment announced in the Budget 2016.

The ‘Calder Valley - Flood Risk Reduction Scheme 1’ comprises a package of works to reduce flood risk throughout the Calder Valley while the ‘Calder Valley - Flood Risk Reduction Schemes 2’ entails a package of works to deliver catchment-wide measures and to develop potential schemes for affected communities in place such as Brighouse, Sowerby Bridge, Copley, Midgely, Halifax.

Cowley Bridge Junction (on the railway to the immediate north of Exeter) was closed for two days from 21 to 23 November 2016 due to flooding from the Rivers Exe, Culm and Creedy.

Network Rail has already raised all of the lineside railway signal cabinets at the site which put them above the level of the recent flood, significantly reducing train service restitution times after the incident. They advise that more work is planned, including widening and improvement of the existing flood culvert during 2017 and installation of an additional culvert in 2018.

The Environment Agency has published guidance[1] that describes the principles that Risk Management Authorities should follow when implementing the Government’s partnership funding policy[2] and promoting flood and coastal risk management projects. This includes securing contributions from beneficiaries for flood risk management schemes.

All contributions are voluntary. Most private contributions are associated with the direct reduction of risk to the business location alone. However in some situations, where businesses are within an at-risk community, their contributions may also be used to protect the adjacent community. Where this is the case, the Government offers tax incentives in support.

The terms on which contributions are secured is a matter for each Risk Management Authority. The guidance describes the key elements these terms should consider. The Environment Agency has standard terms template agreements for use when securing contributions from the public and private sectors towards its projects.

[1] Principles for implementing flood and coastal resilience funding partnerships (Environment Agency 2012)

[2] ‘Flood and coastal resilience partnership funding’ introductory guide (Defra 2011)

The Environment Agency’s six year flood and coastal risk management programme 2015-2021 can be found at the following web address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes.

There are 17 flood prevention schemes planned in the programme on the named rivers over the next three years.

The estimated cost of the works on the named rivers totals £34,700,051. A breakdown can be found below:

A 16/17 £9,152,821

B 17/18 £18,195,397

C 18/19 £7,068,053

D 19/20 £283,780

These figures include a combination of capital Grant in Aid and partnership funding.

The Environment Agency’s maintenance schedule can be found at the following web address:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/river-and-coastal-maintenance-programme

The Environment Agency and its predecessor bodies have worked with partners to undertake a range of flood prevention work in the catchments of the Ribble, Lune, Darwen, Wyre and Yarrow. This includes the completion of flood and coastal risk management schemes as well as maintenance and flood recovery work.

Government changed its funding approach in 2011 to provide space for and encourage private sector and other contributions to Government supported flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes. Private sector contributors benefit from the reduction in flood risk which their investment buys. The return on these investments vary from scheme to scheme depending on the level of protection achieved by the project but private sector contributors can choose how much they invest.

Legislation was introduced in the Finance Bill 2015 to enable companies and unincorporated businesses to receive a tax relief on their contributions to partnership funding for flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes. This is intended to encourage private sector contributions to projects across the country through partnership funding, allowing more schemes to go ahead.