I welcome the announcement from the Environment Minister Rebecca Pow today (22 September) that £25 million will be invested in projects that use nature to protect communities from flooding.
This will be a Government and Environment Agency ring-fenced fund to support natural flood management schemes across England which use techniques including 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. 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 £25 million fund 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.
The new funding is available to environmental non-governmental organisations, businesses, farmers, catchment partnerships, flood risk management authorities and community groups. Successful projects, which will be delivered during 2024-27, will cover a large enough area to provide demonstrable flood risk benefits.
The Environment Agency will manage the programme with expressions of interest opening today (22 September 2023) and closing on 10 November 2023. Links are here for guidance on submitting expressions of interest and for the programme prospectus.
Read more about this announcement here.