In his budget speech yesterday the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, announced £140 million new funding for flood defences.
It is as yet unclear as to whether this is in addition to the £130 million announced by Eric Pickles, whilst standing in for the Environment Secretary in February this year.
So…Is it Enough?
As mentioned in an earlier article “The Costs of the UK Floods” flood defence schemes in Hull and Somerset have a budget shortfall of £140 million combined. Oxford is currently investigating a flood defence project that will cost £123 million. Then there are still the repairs to be carried out on flood defences that were damaged by the recent floods and storms. Sadly, £140 million is looking like a drop in the ocean. According to the Committe on Climate Change, Defra, the goverment department responsible for the Environment Agency, will need a good deal more than what is currently on offer.
In January 2014 the Committee on Climate Change said that
…funding from Defra will still be £1.4 billion behind what the Environment Agency has estimated it needs between 2015 and 2021 to avoid flood risk increasing.
Netherlands Flood Defence Spending
There’s no easy “like for like” comparison to make when it comes to national flood defences. But during the recent floods the UK media often asked “what do the Dutch do?”, so why not ask the same question here.
From a few reports and figures I had available, I found that the Dutch are spending €2.2 billion on their Room for the River project, and plans made by the Delta Commission in 2008 included more than €100 billion in new spending to 2100 to take measures such as broadening coastal dunes and strengthening sea and river dikes.
UK Spending Constraints
Then there is also the constraint of UK government spending rules that prevent spending on flood defences.
Earlier this year, in the face of increased criticism of the Environment Agency, the EA’s Chairman Chris Smith said:
“It’s important, though, to realise a fundamental constraint on us. It’s not only the overall allocation for flood defence work that limits what we can do. There is also a limit on the amount we can contribute to any individual scheme, determined by a benefit-to-cost rule imposed on us by the Treasury.
Last year, after the 2012 floods, we recognised the local view that taking silt out of the two main rivers (in Somerset) would help to carry water away faster after a flood.
The Environment Agency put £400,000 on the table to help with that work – the maximum amount the Treasury rules allowed us to do. The additional funds from other sources that would be needed didn’t come in.”
In other words, public money was available to dredge the Somerset rivers but it couldn’t be used. Let’s hope the same isn’t the case for the newly announced £140 million.
Long Term Flood Defence Programme
Sadly, the budget speech gave us no clear plan or idea of the future for UK’s flood defences.
In his speech in February 2014, Pickles announced a “6 Year Programme” of flood protection that should begin by the autumn and involve “record levels of capital investment in improving defences” of £400m per year by the end of the decade. There was no mention of the 6 Year Programme by Osborne in his budget speech.
See the full budget announcement here.
