The government and its agencies must develop long-term strategic plans to mitigate future flood risk, the National Farmers Union said today with the launch of the NFU Flooding Manifesto.

The plans should include the proper financial resources to deal with extreme weather events to help increase the resilience of farmland from flooding. If and when farmland is used to protect other areas from flooding this must be planned, agreed and paid for.

The NFU unveiled its Flooding Manifesto at a high-profile event in Westminster to highlight priorities and principal asks of Government and others on future flood management.

NFU key policy asks include:

• Plan - More long-term planning to recognise the increased frequency of extreme weather events using local farmer and stakeholder knowledge
• Protect - Government must recognise the importance and value of productive farmland considering wider benefits such as protecting and enhancing the environment and protecting infrastructure
• Pay - Flooding and water management in river and coastal areas must be properly funded to protect urban and rural businesses, infrastructure and communities. Government spending must be transparent, and the artificial distinction between capital and maintenance expenditure removed.

Minette Batters, NFU Deputy President, said:

“Agriculture is often at the mercy of extreme and changeable weather and this winter has again thrown up a number of severe storms. Just weeks ago forecasters predicted a storm surge up and down the east coast. This demonstrates clearly why government and its agencies must have the necessary long term plans in place, including the right financial resources, to deal with future extreme weather events that take into consideration the increased frequency and severity of storms that we have all experienced in recent years.”

"The winter floods of 2015 also caused widespread damage to farming businesses, rural communities and infrastructure and were just one of a series of events which have badly affected the farming industry. Through this manifesto we have looked to provide solutions on how farmers can work with other stakeholders to help improve the resilience of rural areas to flooding.”

“We recognise that farmers have a role to play in mitigating the risk of flooding to others in the catchment. However, natural flood management is not a panacea solution and should only be used as part of a coherent, planned component of total catchment management. One of our main asks of Government and its agencies is to have a greater emphasis on making decisions at a catchment level, using the local knowledge of farmers and other stakeholders.

FOE welcomes manifesto - but damaging practices must be reformed

Responding to the NFU’s flooding manifesto, Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Guy Shrubsole said:

"The NFU is absolutely right to warn of the dangers of increased flooding driven by climate change, and right to call for better long-term flood planning by the Government.”

"We agree that farmers and landowners should be paid to provide natural flood measures, like planting trees or allowing fields to flood to keep the water out of front rooms.”

"But the NFU must also recognise that some current publicly subsidised land-use practices - like overgrazing on uplands and intensive grouse moor management - can actively make flooding worse. This is unacceptable, and the NFU needs to embrace change on these."

Click here to download the NFU Flooding Manifesto