Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 23
23
Accepted in Part
Prioritise funding for flood-risk communities and design framework for fairer, inclusive outcomes.
Recommendation
As the Government prepares to implement the new investment framework from April 2026, it must prioritise funding for communities most at risk from flooding. A simpler system must also be a fairer one, capable of supporting those facing the greatest hardships and repeated flood events. The framework should be designed to deliver fairer and more inclusive outcomes, by: • Incorporating social vulnerability factors such as deprivation, health inequalities, insurance exclusion, and rural isolation, particularly where flooding cuts off entire communities, in decision making, • Improving access to funding for small-scale, rural, and community-led schemes, • Recognising the long-term and repeated impacts of flooding on people, places, and livelihoods, • Valuing the co-benefits of adaptation, including biodiversity, mental health, and economic stability, and • Moving beyond rigid cost-benefit rules to ensure resilience is built where it is most urgently needed. (Recommendation, Paragraph 78)
Government Response Summary
The government outlines that its new rules for investment will give equal weighting to all types of benefit and value co-benefits, committing to invest a minimum of 20% and 40% of funds in the 20% and 40% most deprived communities respectively, over the next three and ten years.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
Defra undertakes detailed financial oversight and assurance, including agreeing the business case for the flood and coastal erosion risk management investment programme as a whole, monitoring progress against programme targets and ensuring the programme is evalu between new flood projects and maintaining existing defence assets. An integrated set of outcome metrics will support allocation of funding towards the most beneficial interventions. We have retained the principle of partnership funding as it maximises every pound of government investment. It fosters collaborative behaviours by bringing multiple partners together to create the best possible projects and outcomes. Under the new rules, we are giving equal weighting to all types of benefit, noting this doesn’t mean that a hectare of agricultural land has the same amount of benefit as a hectare of housing. This approach differs from the old rules which gave higher payments for properties in comparison to environmental and agricultural benefits. The government is committed to valuing a broad range of the co-benefits of adaptation, including economic and environmental outcomes. All decisions on key government spending are subject to clear requirements through the Green Book to consider national benefits such as mental health outcomes and economic stability. The government will continue to invest in deprived communities, who are disproportionately affected by social vulnerability and health inequalities. Under the new rules, deprived communities will receive at least the same share of investment as their weight in the population. A minimum of 20% of investment will go to the 20% most deprived communities and a minimum of 40% to the 40% most deprived communities, combined over both the next three and ten years.