Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a breakdown of spending from the flood and coastal erosion risk management investment programme by the (a) number, (b) type and (c) location of flood defences completed.
Each year the Environment Agency produces a summary of flood and coastal erosion risk management work carried out by risk management authorities in England. This is required under Section 18 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. When the current FCERM investment programme ends, after March 2027, the Environment Agency will publish a report with a breakdown of spending, similar to the report published in 2022 after the 2015-2021 investment programme.
We are in the third year of the current 6-year £5.2 billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme. At the end of March 2023, the Environment Agency estimated that approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested with over 200 flood risk schemes completed and almost 60,000 properties better protected. Below is a breakdown of spending by region for the current investment programme.
ONS Region | 2021 to 2023 expenditure (£ millions) | 2021 to 2023 Properties better protected |
East Midlands | 148 | 9,620 |
East of England | 153 | 5,730 |
London | 67 | 9,730 |
North East | 29 | 240 |
North West | 203 | 6,570 |
South East | 246 | 17,490 |
South West | 191 | 4,240 |
West Midlands | 72 | 2,790 |
Yorkshire & Humber | 244 | 2,940 |
Nationally led projects | 144 | 0 |
Total | 1,496 | 59,350 |
The breakdown of the types of schemes delivered within the first two years is as follows:
Main Rivers/Sea | 140 |
Coastal Erosion | 8 |
Surface Water | 66 |