Flood schemes to benefit from £40m fund
The Government has announced the 13 flood schemes that will benefit from £40m of additional funding, announced in the 2017 budget.
They believe more than 7,000 properties will be better protected against flooding, including over 5,000 homes. This additional money is part of their £2.6bn investment from 2015 to 2021 to fund 1,500 flood defence schemes.
In the statement, they say the schemes will ‘unlock flood defence schemes and help support economic growth and regeneration in areas that have suffered from flooding in recent years.’
Schemes benefitting include £1.2m to improve the harbour wall in Weymouth and £10m to a scheme to protect deprived communities in the St. Austell Bay area of Cornwall.
Five flood schemes in the north of England will receive £17.4m, including Rochdale in Greater Manchester who will receive a total of £5m to develop one of the largest inland flood schemes in the region.
Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said: ‘This extra funding for flood defences will unlock schemes that will better protect thousands of homes and businesses against flooding, supporting regeneration in important towns and villages in the north and coastal communities.
‘It will boost our resilience as a nation and help our communities to grow and prosper.’
Reacting to the announcement, Paul Cobbin, chief executive of the National Flood Forum said: ‘This is good news for communities receiving grant aid. Many of them have recent experience of being flooded and this will reduce their risk of suffering again in the future.’
A full list of the projects benefitting is below.
| Project | Location | Additional funding (£m) | Potential leveraging of partnership funding contributions (£m) |
| Egremont, Skirting Beck defence improvements | Cumbria | 1.60 | 4 |
| St Austell Bar Resilient Regeneration Project – Par & St Blazey | Cornwall | 10.79 | 4.8 |
| Portreath Flood Alleviation Scheme | Cornwall | 1.50 | 0.5 |
| Paul stream channel/culvert refurbishments | Cornwall | 0.68 | 0.1 |
| Great Yarmouth Flood Defence improvements | Norfolk | 5.40 | 1.5 |
| Wiggenhall, Tidal River Bank improvements – Great Ouse Tidal Embankments | Norfolk | 0.20 | 0.1 |
| River Roch, Rochdale & Littleborough Flood Alleviation Scheme | Greater Manchester | 5.00 | 2.0 |
| Radcliffe & Redvales Flood Risk Management Scheme | Greater Manchester | 7.00 | 2.0 |
| Humber, Winteringham and South Ferriby tidal defence improvements | North Lincolnshire | 1.90 | 5.6 |
| Corbridge Flood Alleviation Scheme | Northumberland | 0.14 | 0.4 |
| Weymouth harbour wall improvement works | Dorset | 1.20 | Additional contributions being secured as part of the development of the wider strategy to further improve defences. |
| Fowlea Brook Flood Risk Management Scheme | Staffordshire | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Holderness Drain Flood Alleviation Scheme & East Hull and Gt Culvert | Yorkshire | 3.70 | 2.6 |
