New Chancellor Rishi Sunak has set out details of additional funding for flood infrastructure in the UK in today’s Budget speech, together with announcing the establishment of a new Nature for Climate Fund.

The Chancellor announced plans to make £120 million available immediately to repair defences damaged in the winter floods, together with £200 million of funding to be given directly to local communities to build flood resilience in order to support those areas that have been repeatedly flooded. He also confirmed that investment in flood defences over the next six years would be doubled to £5.2 billion to protect people and over 300,000 properties.

The Government will also provide £640 million for a new Nature for Climate Fund in order to protect, restore and expand natural habitats like woodlands and peat bogs. Over the next five years it will plant around 30,000 hectares of trees and restore 35,000 hectares of peatland. Commenting, Rishi Sunak said:

“This Government intends to be the first in history to leave our natural environment in a better state than we found it.”

Responding to today’s Budget, Sir John Armitt, Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, commented:

“The government’s level of ambition is welcome, and we look forward to seeing how the National Infrastructure Strategy will build on this in addressing the UK’s long-term needs.

“We are particularly encouraged by today’s announcements on five-year funding settlements for city leaders to invest in local transport improvements, and by the additional investment in electric vehicle charging points, both of which are in line with our National Infrastructure Assessment recommendations.

“We also welcome the additional funding for boosting flood protection, though we have repeatedly argued for this to be complemented by the introduction of a national flood resilience standard.

“These new commitments, among others, are important ingredients, and we look forward to seeing the whole recipe in the Strategy later this spring.”

Other measures announced by the Chancellor include:

• Increasing investment in R&D to £22 billion a year - as a percentage of GDP highest in nearly forty years and higher than the US, China, France and Japan.
• £800m investment in a new UK blues-skies funding agency modelled on ‘ARPA’ in USA.
• £400m incremental funding into high quality research - much of it into universities around the country.
• £5bn to get gigabit-capable broadband into the hardest to reach places
• £5bn of new export loans for businesses
• £510m of new investment into the shared rural mobile phone network - meaning that in the next five years 4G coverage will reach 95% of the country
• Dedicated trade envoys representing the North, the Midlands, Wales and the West of England in embassies around the world
• Introduction of a new Plastics Packaging Tax -from April 2022, manufacturers and importers will be charged £200 / tonne on packaging made of less than 30% recycled plastic.

Christine McGourty, Water UK chief executive, said that recent flooding had shown how devastating the effects of a changing climate can be and it iwas vital that to take action now.

Responding to the 2020 Budget announcement, she continued:

“The water industry will achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030, the first sector to set such an ambitious target. With our pledge to also prevent the equivalent of 4 billion plastic bottles ending up as waste by 2030, the water sector is stepping up to the challenges facing our environment but we need support from policy makers.

“We are delighted that the Government has recognised the importance of peatland restoration and tree-planting, areas where water companies are already very active as we work towards our own target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030. We’ve also been calling for people who pollute our natural world to be held accountable for cleaning it up, so it’s a positive move to see the Government widen producer responsibility.

“We are asking the Government to go further however and make it easier for customers to cut water use in businesses and in the home. Mandatory water efficiency labelling of appliances would make a big difference if included in the Environment Bill.”