Thirteen communities across the country will benefit from a £5 million fund to come up with innovative projects that will better protect homes and businesses from the risk of flooding, Environment Minister Richard Benyon announced today.
The scheme is aimed at protecting communities where flooding is a major problem and the projects will be required to demonstrate that they can reduce the levels of flood risk in measurable ways.
This will give residents evidence about flood risk that could be taken into account by insurers and result in lower premiums.
The projects are funded by the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder scheme launched by Defra in December 2012.
Benyon said: "We want to help local communities do more to protect their homes and possessions from the risk of flooding. The Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder Scheme will enable communities to find simple, effective ways to minimise their flood risk, improve their levels of preparedness, and build confidence and increased peace of mind.
"All together with money from local communities and business raised through our successful partnership funding scheme, over £2.3 billion is being spent to protect people from flooding. This is more money than ever before, and we are on course to better protect 165,000 homes by 2015."
The announcement comes as farmers called for a 'more effective partnership' between government and the Environment Agency to help protect high value land from flooding.
After the record-breaking wet summer and autumn, landowners have asked for an increase in budgets in order to prevent flooding in the future. The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management also backed calls for increased investment.
New figures published today by the Environment Agency show that one in every five days saw flooding in 2012, but one in four days were in drought, including hosepipe bans affecting over 20 million people. Rivers such as the Tyne, Ouse and Tone went from their lowest to their highest flows since records began, all in the space of four months.
"While belt tightening is part and parcel of life at present, there are some areas that must be protected – investment in sustainable flood infrastructure is one such area" said CIWEM Executive Director, Nick Reeves.
"Failure to invest in infrastructure and manage the risks of flooding in a sustainable, realistic way will lead to continued loss of life and property, extensive damage to the UK economy and ongoing misery for millions of people."
Pathfinder projects are designed to complement other flood risk management work already taking place, or planned for the future, to further alleviate the risk of flooding.
One of the largest projects is in Calderdale, where 1000 people will be protected from flood risk, because volunteers will monitor rivers and lakes so that higher levels of water can be drained safely to avoid flooding.
Defra has contributed £310,000 to this project with a further £215,000 raised through partnership funding from the Council, local businesses and a community trust.
The project partnership also includes organisations with regional interests like the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and the Canal & River Trust.
The following Local Authorities will be receiving funding: Blackburn, Buckinghamshire, Calderdale, Cornwall, Devon, Liverpool, Northamptonshire, Rochdale, Slough, Southampton, Swindon, Warwickshire and West Sussex.
