The £2.3bn for flood defences in England re-announced by the government on Tuesday is, quite literally, the least it could do. It is good news for the 300,000 homes that will gain better protection. But is not enough to hold back the rising tide of flood risk, driven by climate change, that affects millions more.
Flood defences are expensive, of that there is no doubt. But they represent excellent value for money, typically preventing damage eight to 10 times as much as the initial investment.
Setting out the funding until 2020 is a very good idea, as flooding needs to be planned for and not reacted to, as happened after last winter, the wettest for at least 250 years. But the spending is only held level in real terms to 2020, while the government’s own experts say flood risk is rising as global warming provokes more intense rain and fiercer storms and that funding must increase by £20m each year in real terms.
Nonetheless, the funding package shows the government has at last woken up to the huge and rising damage to people and property wreaked by flooding, or at least opened one eye. On entering government in 2010, ministers slashed flood funding by about a quarter. Floods in 2012 and last winter’s devastation saw David Cameron plugging one-off payments into the gaping holes in the defences budget, which the Guardian revealed had affected flooded areas.
After that, Cameron and his ministers repeatedly attempted to claim they were now spending more than ever before, only to be contradicted by authorities like the Office for National Statistics and the National Audit Office. The government’s official adviser, the committee on climate change, has also been sharply critical, stating that there was a £500m hole in the government’s plan, meaning many tens of thousands of homes would suffer raised flood risk.
The £2.3bn over the next six years means ministers can at last rightly claim they are spending more than before. But only because they themselves cut the previous budget.
Tuesday’s announcement, bringing no new money, instead sets out which flood defences are being funded, from the Thames to Tonbridge to Boston. But the details are revealing. Humberside, one of the places most at risk from flooding, gets £80m, a very long way off the £1bn local MPs and councils say is necessary.
An analysis of the new plan to 2020 by Friends of the Earth found that £1.6bn worth of good-value flood defences have been shelved to at least 2021. One such scheme near Dawlish Warren, where the train track collapsed during last winter’s storms, would have protected 653 homes. Another worrying detail is that about £500m of the £2.3bn is expected to come from local councils, businesses and people. If they can’t find the money – and council flood funding has recently been cut – the promised defences won’t get built.
In February, as floods submerged thousands of homes, Cameron said: “Money is no object in this relief effort.” The £2.3bn plan to 2020 – effectively treading water as the risk rises – shows the same pledge does not apply to stopping future floods.
