Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed has announced the launch of a new Floods Resilience Taskforce to turbocharge the development of flood defences and bolster the nation’s resilience to extreme weather.

Photo L - R: Sebastian Catovsky (Defra Floods and Water Director), Secretary of State Steve Reed,

Floods Minister Emma Hardy and Stuart Armstrong ,Defra Emergencies Deputy Director

The new Taskforce convened for the first time on Thursday last week. The Taskforce brings together the Secretary of State and Floods Minister Emma Hardy with representatives from Defra, MHCLG, Home Office, Cabinet Office, the Environment Agency, the Met Office, Local Resilience Forums, Mayoral Offices, emergency responders and the National Farmers Union, among others.

The expert group discussed how they will speed up and co-ordinate flooding preparation and resilience between central government, local authorities and community responders, and emergency services.

The group will also use their collective experience and knowledge to identify and protect vulnerable areas, including championing the delivery of drainage systems, flood defences and natural flood management schemes in communities.

This comes as the current Met Office outlook suggests autumn is likely to be wetter than usual.

Some 5.5 million properties in England are at risk from flooding and the country has just experienced the wettest 18 months on record (to February 2024) following extreme weather including Storms Babet and Ciarán.

The Taskforce also outlined its plans to take a long-term, strategic approach to the challenges of flooding. This will support better protection for families across the country, as well as underpinning the resilience of the economy to the growing threat of climate change. These challenges include ensuring that funding for national infrastructure remains sustainable into the future.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed said:

“Flooding devastates communities and businesses across the country. For far too long the delivery of flood schemes has been too slow and left communities underwater.

“That is why the new Government is acting now to speed up the building of flood defences and bolster our emergency response.”

Floods Minister Emma Hardy added:

“The climate crisis is the greatest global challenge we currently face, and as an eyewitness to extreme flooding myself, I know the devastating impact these events can have on our livelihoods.

“As chair of the Floods Resilience Taskforce, I will work closely with our partners to ensure projects remain on track and not only protect homes but create more green jobs and drive investment in our towns.”

The Environment Agency is the government’s primary delivery partner for flood defences and continues to support the construction of hundreds of projects across the country.

Recognising the scale of the challenge, Environment Agency teams have been prioritising the construction, maintenance, and repair of key flood defences – including the Cockett Wick seawall in Essex, which will ensure 3,000 homes and businesses are protected better after a £12 million investment.

Caroline Douglass, Executive Director for Flood and Coastal Risk Management at the Environment Agency, commented:

“Protecting people and communities is our top priority, which will only become more pressing as climate change brings more extreme weather and rising sea levels.

“This new Taskforce will look at the range of resilience measures available to provide options to reduce flood risks in more communities – and we will play our part to ensure essential projects are delivered across the country.”

The next meeting of the Taskforce will take place in early 2025 and will discuss longer-term oversight of wider flood resilience strategy and investment, as well as any rapid learning on the response to major flooding.

In August, the government also launched the Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure, which is backed by £40 million and will be the first UK-wide network looking to understand the impact of extreme weather conditions across the country, identifying where incidents are likely to occur and planning to limit their impact.