Environment Minister announces £25m investment into natural flood management

£25m will be invested in projects that use nature to protect communities from flooding, Environment Minister Rebecca Pow announced today (22 September).

The ring-fenced funding, provided by the Government and the Environment Agency, will support natural flood management schemes across England that use techniques such as planting trees and creating wetlands to slow and store water to reduce the risk of flooding. These schemes are also proven to improve air and water quality, provide habitats for wildlife and create green spaces for communities.

This new funding builds on the £15m natural flood management pilot programme which ran until 2021 which included three projects in Yorkshire which secured £701k of the funding.

Across the 60 pilot projects supported by this programme, the equivalent of 1.6 million cubic metres of water storage was created and 15,000 homes were better protected from flooding, while 4,000 hectares of habitat and 610 kilometres of river were improved and 100 hectares of woodland were planted.

The £25m will also help harness the power of nature and support the Environment Agency’s FCERM Strategy, which provides a longer-term vision of how we will create climate-resilient places and better protect and prepare homes and businesses from flooding and coastal change.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “Nature is an essential weapon in our armoury against flooding. Enhancing the natural landscape to slow rivers and hold flood water works hand-in-hand with the bricks and mortar protection we are building with our £5.2 billion flood programme.

“That is why we are driving investment to harness the power of nature. This approach not only reduces flood risk and helps tackle climate change, it can also benefit water quality, restore habitats and boost biodiversity. Natural flood management is a win-win-win.”

Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell said: “In the face of a changing climate, and with the frequency and severity of flooding only likely to get worse, we need to act now.

“The pioneers who already work with nature-based solutions to achieve greater flood resilience give me hope. I am delighted this new Natural Flood Management Programme will be open to environmental groups, catchment partnerships, farmers, landowners, and local authorities to speed up more investment in natural flood management.

“Natural flood management gives us so many wider benefits and I look forward to seeing projects coming forward that also help to create habitats for wildlife, support better river quality, and sequester carbon.”

Projects supported by the £15m pilot in Yorkshire include Backstone Beck, Brompton Beck and Bishopdale, which secured a total of £701k funding. At Backstone Beck on Ilkley Moor large leaky wooden structures and 471 natural stone dams installed in manmade drainage ditches have been constructed. Around 185,000 sphagnum moss plugs have also been planted, to help slow the flow of water.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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