In a report published today, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee is warning that shortfalls in Environment Agency funding are responsible for the deteriorating state of England’s flood defences.

The report says that while the Agency is responsible for maintaining existing flood defence assets, its funding to do so was £34 million short in 2022–23. The EA was therefore only able to keep 94% of its high consequence flood defences at the required condition against its target of 98%.

The report points out that while there is “some flexibility” to use money from the capital programme to fund maintenance, Defra did not consider using some of the £310 million that was not spent in the first two years of the capital programme to meet the £34 million shortfall in its maintenance budget. Instead, all the capital underspend was deferred to the remaining years of the programme.

Due to the deferrment of the underspend, the EA will need to invest an average of almost £1 billion for each of the remaining four years of the programme.

Defra has no overall numerical target for level of long-term flood resilience

The Committee is also warning that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has no overall numerical target for the UK’s level of long-term flood resilience, and therefore cannot know if it is progressing in its 2020 ambition to create “a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk.

Despite this ambition, the report says the government has not defined what this means and has no measure of resilience to measure progress against.

There are 5.7 million properties in England at risk of flooding. While the ongoing capital programme expects to improve protection for 200,000 properties by 2027, some 203,000 properties are currently at increased risk of flooding due to the deterioration of existing flood defences, the report says.

The government’s six-year, £5.2 billion capital programme the period April 2021 to March 2027 was originally intended to provide better protection for 336,000 properties in England. However, the programme started slowly with the EA underspending by £310 million in the first two years.

According to the report, while Defra still expects to spend all £5.2 billion on building flooding defences, with the slow start and additional challenges such as inflation, the Agency will now fund only 1,500 of the 2,000 flood defence projects originally planned in this investment period. It expects these projects will protect only 200,000 properties by 2027, a reduction of 40% on the government’s original commitment, but the final number could be even lower.

With the programme’s success relying on the completion of many large projects where the EA has only “medium or low confidence” of delivering by 2027, the Committee is concerned that the number of properties better protected could turn out to be even fewer than the current revised-down forecast of 200,000.

To monitor delivery of the programme, Defra and the Agency have developed a set of 18 metrics with the primary focus on the ‘headline’ metric of the number of properties better protected.

The Committee has taken issue with this headline metric, warning:

“The properties better protected measure is a poor indication of overall progress in tackling overall flood risk because it does not take account of properties that have become less well protected due to factors such as housing development, climate change or any deterioration in the condition of flood defence assets. The Government does not take the net change in the number of properties at risk into consideration – its failure to do so could be perversely distorting its actions and priorities.”

Poor maintenance undermining progress on the capital programme

In the Committee’s view, “poor maintenance is undermining progress on the capital programme and that Defra has not yet got the balance right between building new defences and maintaining existing ones.”

The report said that neither Defra nor the Environment Agency assessed whether using part of the £310 million underspend in the first two years of the capital programme to meet the £34 million shortfall in its maintenance budget in 2022–23 would provide better value for money - and did not ask HM Treasury for this flexibility.

Due to slow progress on the capital programme and the Agency’s poor maintenance performance, it is unlikely the government will be able to close Flood Re in 2039, as currently planned, the MPs are warning.

The Committee’s report highlights a range of concerns in Government’s support and approach to flood resilience, including:

• smaller and rural communities losing out due to a lack of flood protection provision for communities of fewer than 100 houses that can nevertheless be devastated by the impact of flooding;
• new housing continuing to be built in high flood risk areas without adequate mitigations, as over half of Local Planning Authorities said they rarely or never inspect a new development to check compliance with flood risk planning conditions;
• a lack of necessary leadership and support from Government for local authorities on how to address the increasing risks of surface water flooding.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Deputy Chair of the Committee, said:

“With the reality of climate change and increasing rainfall, robust flood resilience must of course become an ever-increasing priority. As we have recently seen once again, the depredations caused by such disasters are a matter of life and death for communities up and down the country. This inquiry has uncovered the alarming truth that in a number of ways, the approach to keeping our citizens safe in this area is contradictory and self-defeating, not least in the continuing development of new housing in areas of high flood risk without appropriate mitigations.

“The number of properties at risk of flooding from deteriorating defences eclipsing those benefitting from new ones is another case in point. This is emblematic both of the Government’s failure to strike the right balance between maintenance and construction, and of not considering the net number of properties at risk. One of the first steps in delivering any successful policy is clearly defining what success looks like. We hope the recommendations in our report help the Government to do so.”

The Committee’s recommendations to the government set out in the report include:

• In its next annual report, the Agency should provide a more holistic assessment of net progress towards a “nation more resilient to flooding”, taking into account properties less well protected as well as those better protected. Defra should develop a measure which shows the net change in the number of properties at risk from flooding in order to give the true picture of England’s resilience to future flood and coastal erosion risk and set a target for the net change it aims to achieve.
• In the Treasury Minute response to this report, the Agency should include a robust forecast of the number of properties that will be better protected under the current capital programme by 2027, including how many properties in rural communities, taking into account all the risks that have been identified. It should also set out the best and worst case scenarios for these figures.
• In the Treasury Minute response, Defra and the Agency should also set out what further changes are under consideration to make it easier to get smaller projects approved.
• For the remaining years of the capital programme, the Agency should set out the value for money of different options for the balance between capital and maintenance budgets, and whether there is a case for transferring funds between the two - to be reviewed annually.
• Defra should set out how it intends to get a better understanding of the impact of its investment decisions on geographical distribution and on its progress in reviewing local government funding for flooding.
• Defra must complete and publish its significantly overdue work to identify areas which are likely to lack enough local authority resources and private sector contributions to manage flood risk within three months of the Report's publication 

Risks from surface water flooding increasing but Defra is not providing necessary leadership and support for local authorities

Another key area where the Committee want to see further action is the issue of surface water flooding. The report says:

“The risks from surface water flooding are increasing, but Defra is not providing the necessary leadership and support for local authorities on how this will be addressed. Surface water flooding is a growing issue with 3.4 million properties at risk in England….

“An increase in non-permeable surfaces (such as paved driveways) adds to the problem and action to tackle surface water flooding is hampered by a lack of local authority resources.”

The Committee has pointed out that under Schedule 3 to the Floods and Water Management Act 2010, any construction work that has drainage implications requires approval before it starts - but this has still not yet been implemented in England. Section 3 will require lead flood authorities to oversee the correct design and implementation of sustainable drainage systems (SUDS).

Defra expects it to be implemented by the end of 2024 – the report says:

“Defra should urgently work with DLUHC to identify the skills and resources local authorities will need to implement Schedule 3 and where there are likely to be gaps particularly relating to the proper installation of sustainable drainage systems (SUDS).

"Unforgivable to permit building of houses in the flood plain without effective mitigation measures”

Commenting on development in flood plains, the report says the Environment Agency only examines a proportion of planning applications to build in a flood plain due to its own lack of resources. In addition, over half of Local Planning Authorities “said they rarely or never inspected a new development” to check compliance with flood risk planning conditions, also due primarily to a lack of resources.

The Committee is warning that “despite the clear risk” it believes that there is still a lot of development continuing in areas of flood risk without adequate mitigations.

Saying “it is unforgivable to permit the building of houses in the flood plain without effective mitigation measures,” the report is calling for the Agency, working with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and local planning authorities, to develop plans, including an assessment of any additional resources needed, to strengthen its follow-up process to ensure that the Agency’s planning advice has been fully implemented.

The Committee wants the Department to write to it within 12 months to inform the MPs of progress on plans to reduce development in areas of flood risk without adequate mitigations.

Commenting in response the report, Professor Jim Hall of the National Infrastructure Commission said:

“We share the Committee’s view that a more strategic, long term and measurable approach from government to flood risk is essential. The National Infrastructure Commission has recommended that government should set a clear target for reducing flood risk, and report regularly on progress. In our National Infrastructure Assessment we have also recommended that all new developments are resilient to flooding from rivers with an annual likelihood of 0.5 per cent for their lifetime, and emphasised the need for funding to help households prepare for floods and recover faster.

“While Storm Henk led to dramatic river flooding, we also need to manage risks from flooding from the sea and surface water. Implementing Schedule 3 of the Floods and Water Management Act as soon as possible to make sustainable drainage the default for new homes and reduce surface water flooding risk should be a priority.”

Click here to download the full report