Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Short-term funding cycles are impacting on the Agency’s ability to manage flood risks effectively.
Recommendation
Short-term funding cycles are impacting on the Agency’s ability to manage flood risks effectively. The Agency has a six-year capital funding settlement for investment in flood defences (2021–22 to 2026–27), but only a one-year settlement for revenue funding (2021–22). Revenue funding pays for people and running costs including the on-going maintenance of flood defences. Maintenance costs are increasing due to more extreme weather as a result of climate change, more flood defences being built and as some defences reach the end of their life. Only half of the defences damaged in the 2019–20 winter floods have had their standard of protection restored. Multi- year revenue funding settlements would improve planning in areas such as staffing. The Agency has skills gap in some areas such as engineering that are critical for flood defence, which it says is largely down to the pay difference between the public and private sectors. As a result, the Agency is looking to develop in-house expertise, which requires long-term investment in skills and, in turn, certainty over revenue funding. Recommendation: The Department and the Agency should work with HM Treasury to reduce the adverse impacts of short-term funding cycles. The Government should also undertake a cost benefit assessment of the level of funding needed to maintain flood defences and flood risk management assets both at and above current Environment Agency target condition. The Environment Agency should have a duty to maintain flood defence assets and the Government should commit to maintenance funding in revenue funding settlements for longer-term security.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: ongoing ahead of Spending Review 2021 4.2 The government recognises that there can be benefits to setting budgets for key priorities on a multi- year basis. This is why the government has taken a multi-year approach to flood and coastal defence investment, now commencing its second six-year floods programme. Between 2015 and 2021, £2.6 billion has been invested across six years and starting in April 2021 a record £5.2 billion will be invested in the next six-year capital investment programme for flood defences. This investment will deliver around 2,000 flood schemes and will better protect 336,000 properties from flooding. 4.3 Defra and the Agency recognise the need to ensure a smooth transition across programmes. That is why they have worked jointly with HM Treasury to bring forward £100 million of capital development funding into the final year of the 2015-21 programme. 4.4 Between 2015 and 2020, the government significantly increased funding for the maintenance of flood defence assets and wider maintenance, for example river conveyance work. The government will continue to review future budgets as part of SR21.