Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
Significant portion of flood defence projects depend on securing external partnership funding
Conclusion
Some 40% of projects need to find partnership funding to be able to go ahead.47 Partnership funding is an important source of funding, where risk management authorities (such as local authorities) raise funds from the public and private sectors towards a flood defence project. To support this capital programme, Defra has brought in £130 million of partnership funding from the private sector so far. The Agency estimates it needs £2.3 billion partnership funding in total, for the six years 2021–27, on top of the £5.2 billion grant funding. The vast majority of partnership funding comes from public sector contributions.48
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states the department has completed an assessment of local flood and coastal risk and local authority spend, which will be published shortly. They report £347 million in partnership funding secured so far, including £128 million from the private sector, and commit to continue monitoring private sector contributions annually.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.10 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2024 5.11 The department has completed an assessment of local flood and coastal risk and local authority spend which has been shared with the Committee and will be published shortly. 5.12 In the current capital programme (2021-2027) around £347 million of partnership funding has been secured so far – including approximately £128 million in private sector contributions. This more than doubles the £55 million in private sector contributions secured across the whole of the previous six-year programme (2015 to 2021). The government continues to consider measures it can take to mitigate the impact of inflation and other challenges on project delivery in the current programme, including private sector contributions and local authority resources. The actions that the Agency are already taking referenced in response to recommendations 2b and 4b will support local authorities and other risk management authorities to better deliver flood schemes in this flood investment programme. 5.13 In addition to the partnership funding secured, communities suffering repeated flooding can benefit from the £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance, designed to help schemes that already qualify for Defra’s Flood Defence Grant in Aid funding under the current capital programme, and meet the department’s eligibility criteria of better protecting a frequently flooded community, but have not been able to secure the funding necessary to progress their scheme. The government has already provided over £900 million of the total Partnership Funding requirement for this programme. 5.14 Partnership funding figures are published annually in the Agency’s annual flood and coastal erosion risk management reports, this will enable the department to continue monitoring private sector contributions moving forwards.