Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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Benn pledges £34 million to implement Pitt Review recommendations

Benn pledges £34 million to implement Pitt Review recommendations

DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (34/08) issued by The Government News Network on 4 February 2008

Hilary Benn has today announced that at least £34.5 million of the £2.15bn total Government flood and coastal erosion spend over the next three years will be allocated to implement the final recommendations from Sir Michael Pitt's report on the summer floods.

Mr Benn also announced that the Environment Agency will receive £1.8 billion of this funding over the same period, 2008/09 to 2010/11. The Agency will be responsible for allocating this funding across all Operating Authorities (which includes local authorities, Internal Drainage Boards and the Agency itself) and overseeing the programme of works to deliver a range of tougher targets for new and improved defences and projects. These will help to ensure that more households and important wildlife sites are protected from the risks of flooding.

Of the total £1.8 billion, the Environment Agency will use £788 million to fund the operating costs of its flood risk management service, which includes the routine maintenance of defences and the flood warning service, over the same three year period.

Hilary Benn said:

"The devastation that was caused by the unprecedented level of rainfall this summer has shown us the awful and lasting impact flooding can have on communities.

"If we are to learn the lessons and reduce the impact of future flooding on this scale, we have much work to do. I have accepted the urgent recommendations outlined in Sir Michael Pitt's interim report, but there will be still more to consider when he publishes his final report, later on this year. This is why I have set aside an initial £34.5 million of funding, in anticipation of the work that his final recommendations may ask for."

Over £2.15 billion is planned to be invested by Government and local authorities in flood and coastal erosion management over the three years spending review period. As outlined in the Comprehensive Spending Review last October, spending will rise from its current level of £600m, to £650m in 2008-09, £700m in 2009-10 and £800 million in 2010-11.

Hilary Benn added:

"Government has a duty to ensure that these record levels of investment are being used to best effect, so that householders receive effective protection and tax payers receive good value for money.

"That's why we've set new targets, in partnership with the Environment Agency, to ensure our additional investment is delivering increased protection. Investment from the last spending review is set to deliver improved protection for more than 100,000 houses. With this year's increased funding the Environment Agency will be improving protection for at least 145,000 homes - 45,000 of which will be the most at risk households."

This investment for the next three years will be:

* At least £34.5 million will be dedicated to implementing the final recommendations from the Pitt report. This money will come from a total budget of £62.5 million retained for now by Defra to fund a range of work which includes helping communities adapt to the flood and costal erosion impact of climate change.

* A total of £1.8 billion is to be allocated to Operating Authorities over the three years to fund all the on-the-ground flood management work, which includes building and maintaining defences, monitoring, and flood forecasting and warning.

* We estimate that local authorities will spend around £260 million maintaining their own defences, as well as funding additional work by the Environment Agency and Internal Drainage Boards .

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Written Statement can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/ministers/statements/default.asp

2. Hilary Benn announced on 9 October as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review that government spending would rise to at least £650/700/800 million. The table below shows a breakdown of spending now proposed (excluding Defra's own spend which is still being considered as part of the overall business planning round):

                                    £ millions
                                     Allocated to  Total
                                     Operating
                                     Authorities
               LA Own      Retained  EA Resource   Capital
               Spend       (for now) (maintenance  Programme(new &
               (Estimated) in Defra  & operational improved defences
                                     costs)        & projects)
      2007/08  86          0         247           259               602
      Baseline
      2008/09  87          4         251           308               650
      2009/10  87          20.5      258           334.5             700
      2010/11  87          38        279           400               804
      CSR 3    261         62.5      788           1,042.5           2,154
      Year total 


3. Defra funds almost all the Environment Agency's Flood Defence activity, and, through the Agency, local authorities and Internal Drainage Boards on a project by project basis for capital improvement works.

4. The new targets that the Environment Agency will oversee the delivery of are as follows:

Outcome Measure       Definition               Minimum Target
      OM1 Economic Benefits Average benefit cost     5 to1 average
                            ratio across the capital with all projects
                            programme based upon the having a benefit
                            present value whole life cost ratio
                            costs and benefits of    robustly greater
                            projects delivering in   than 1
                            the CSR07 period.
      OM2 Households        Number of households     145,000
      protected             with improved standard   households of
                            of protection against    which 45,000 are
                            flooding or coastal      at significant or
                            erosion risk.            greater
                                                     probability
      OM3 Deprived          Number of households for 9,000 of the
      households at risk    which the probability of 45,000 households
                            flooding is reduced from above
                            significant or greater
                            through projects
                            benefiting the most
                            deprived 20% of areas.
      OM4 Nationally        Hectares of SSSI land    24,000 hectares
      important wildlife    where there is a
      sites                 programme of measures in
                            place (agreed with
                            Natural England) to
                            reach target condition
                            by 2010.
      OM5 UK Biodiversity   Hectares of priority     800 hectares of
      Action Plan habitats  Biodiversity Action Plan which at least
                            habitat including        300 hectares
                            intertidal created by    should be
                            March 2011.              intertidal 


5. Defra has policy responsibility for flood and coastal erosion risk management in England. Delivery on the ground is the responsibility of operating authorities.

6. Local authorities receive extra support from the Department for Communities and Local Government for levies paid to the Environment Agency and to internal drainage boards and for their own spend on maintenance and operation of defences.

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