The UK Government has told the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that it does not agree there is a need for substantial structural change in flood risk management.

The comments come in the Government’s follow-up to its first response to the EFRA Committee’s recent report on Future flood prevention on 24 January 2017.The Committee had requested further information to the response.

A letter sent by Dr Therese Coffey MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs received by Neil Parish MP, Committee Chair on 20 February said:

“….you asked for more information on proposals for improving local governance and partnership working at catchment level…..we do not agree there is a need for substantial structural change.”

In response to the Committee’s request for more information on how the government’s £2.5 bn flood risk management budget is being used to slow the flow of water across catchments so as to reduce the risk of communities flooding in future, the letter says:

“Our approach is to support both a catchment approach to planning and greater use of natural flood management (NFM) measures alongside hard, engineered defences. In the Autumn Statement, we announced funding of £15m specifically for Natural Flood Management schemes across England and further details on where this money will be spent will be announced in due course.”

According to the Government, NFM is being used as part of an integrated engineered solution in several schemes already including Lustrum Beck in Stockton on Tees, Skipton in Yorkshire, Perry Barr and Witten in Birmingham and Medmerry on the south coast. Further potential schemes that work with natural processes are planned for the Great Stour in East Kent, and Rochdale and Littleport.

Dr. Coffey went on to say that details of the projects of the Government’s refreshed investment programme will be made public in the next few months. In addition, the introduction of a new reporting measure on NFM which will enable the Government to say how many schemes include NFM measures in the Government’s flood investment capital programme, broadly what measures they are, and how much they cost. Such schemes will be reported within the programme from 2018/19 onwards.

On the request for more information on proposals for improving local governance and partnership working at catchment level, the letter says:

“Although we do not agree there is a need for substantial structural change, we are always looking for ways to improve and adapt the way we work to meet current and future needs.”

“We have recently published the Local Flood Risk Management Action Plan, which contains actions to support Lead Local Flood Authorities in carrying out their responsibilities for managing local flood risk.”

“In addition, the Environment Agency will be working with interested partners such as Regional Flood Coastal Committees and Internal Drainage Boards to refresh the national flood and coastal erosion management strategy for England.”

Amongst other things, the revised strategy will set out the authorities involved in flood and coastal erosion risk management and their respective functions. It will also cover how the strategy will contribute towards the achievement of wider environmental objectives.