The Enviroment Agency has sought advice from the Infrastructure Planning Commission about whether possible linked flood defence schemes for the Lower Thames could collectively become a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.

Graham Piper, Environment Agency project lead for the Lower Thames Flood Risk Management Strategy told the Commission in December that the Agency was looking to progress the implementation of the Strategy and was looking into whether it could be done through the IPC process.

The Strategy is aimed at reducing flood risk in one of the most populated areas of undefended floodplains in the united Kingdom. More than 15,000 homes and businesses currently face a 1% or greater risk of flooding in any one year. The strategy requires funding approval for the whole life capital and maintenance costs (over 100 years) - currently valued at £538 million.

Under Section 51 of the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008), the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) has the power to give advice about the general processes involved in applying for development consent. In its response the Commission has told the Agency that it is unable to provide a legal opinion as to whether development consent is required for any specific proposal and advised it to seek further advice from the Agency’s in-house planning team or seek legal advice as to whether the development would fall within the definition of a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) and, as such, require a development consent order.

The IPC also advised the Environment Agency that the process set out for NSIP projects in the PA2008 is “heavily front-loaded” and requires the developer to undertake statutory pre-application publicity and consultation. If the Agency considers that the scheme will come forward as an NSIP application, the IPC has recommended early engagement of all the relevant stakeholders - including the IPC.

Funding for the scheme an increasingly key issue

Funding for the Lower Thames Strategy scheme is becoming an increasingly key issue. Following public consultation, the strategy was approved in November 2010 and in July 2011 Defra agreed with the preferred option.

In a briefing update in November 2011, the Environment Agency said that as a consequence of the Government’s 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, it had been instructed by Defra to make a reduction in capital expenditure by 27% by 2014 - which has implications for the size of the capital programme and its proposed schemes.

In June 2011 Defra also introduced a new policy of Partnership Funding which would enable a greater number of schemes to receive at least some capital funding, with the remaining amount made up from external contributions. However, under the new policy fewer schemes will receive 100% GiA Defra funding -  and the Lower Thames Strategy is no longer eligible.

The change in policy means that the delivery of the LTS will now involve a greater partnership between the respective planning authorities and the Environment Agency.

According to the Agency, preliminary calculations show that the preferred option, arising from the LTS, will now only receive about half of the GiA funding required, meaning the remainder will need to come from various forms of external contributions. The Agency described this as a significant amount which is currently calculated as at least £114m.

Funding and delivery

The Environment Agency Briefing said that its proposed options would be delivered through separate projects and that depending on the scale of works, each project would require individual approval. The projects would also have to be delivered in a phased manner based upon the availability of funding from both a specific amount of Defra GiA and external contributions.

Although the Agency is currently focussed identifying and exploring various sources of external contributions, together with representatives from the local authorities affected, it is warning that if funding is not available, there is a risk that some parts of the project may not be constructed.

Funding issues will delay already-lengthy delivery timescales

Due to the potential scale of the capital works and the need to identify external funding sources, it is likely that it would take several years for the detailed design, the necessary planning approvals and construction to be implemented. The Agency is also warning that it is now likely that construction will not start in 2017 as previously stated. In addition the period of the construction phase will cover a longer time span, to reflect the funding provision.