Recommendation 15

The Agency told us that multi-year revenue funding settlements are preferable and help it to plan in areas such as staffing. The Agency has skills shortages in some specialist areas like engineering that are critical for flood defence. It explained that this is largely due to the disparity between the pay in the public and private sectors and it does not see this situation changing significantly. As a result, one solution it is focused on is developing in- house expertise through apprenticeship schemes and supporting people to get professional qualifications. It said that these are long-term solutions which emphasise the importance of certainty over long-term funding.16