Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to reform the funding of internal drainage board levies.

The Government remains committed to the important work that internal drainage boards (IDBs) undertake. IDBs are independent statutory public bodies, mainly funded by the beneficiaries of their work, as set out in the Land Drainage Act 1991. This is divided between farmers / landowners (who pay drainage rates) and local authorities (who pay a special levy) and is proportionate to the land classification in the IDB area.  The Government provided additional one-off funding to 15 councils in 2023 in respect of the significant additional pressure caused by energy costs on IDB special levies. The government remains in contact with the sector.

There is currently a technical barrier to the creation of new and expansion of existing IDBs. The Government has amended the Land Drainage Act 1991, via the Environment Act 2021, to remove this barrier. This enables new updated valuation calculations for IDBs to use in apportioning their expenses between drainage rates and special levies to be included in secondary legislation. We will aim to implement the statutory instrument as soon as possible, pending the outcome of the consultation which we hope to launch shortly.