| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
5 Jan 2010 : Column 74W—continued
Additionally, £300,000 was allocated in December 2008 for six areas (Warrington, Thatcham, Leeds, Kingston upon Hull, Richmond upon Thames and Gloucestershire) to carry out first edition surface water management plans with the aim to test DEFRA's Draft Surface Water Management Plan Guidance.
3. Building skills and capacity for local authorities
An additional £1 million will be available for building skills and capacity within local authorities. This will include the provision of training, guidance and support tools to all local authorities and a programme for this will be developed with local authorities and their representatives over the next few months.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) take-up and (b) geographic distribution has been of funding made available by his Department following the flooding of summer 2007 for flood prevention works; how much such funding has yet to be allocated; and if he will make a statement. [307756]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Spending on flood risk management across central and local government has increased from £307 million in 1996-97 to over £655 million in 2008-09, and is due to reach £715 million in 2009-10 and £780 million in 2010-11. This will bring the total spent by DEFRA, the Environment Agency and local authorities over three years to £2.15 billion. £20 million of the original £800 million for 2010-11 was brought forward into this year's budgets as part of the fiscal stimulation package announced in the 2008 pre-Budget report.
The majority of the funding is through the Environment Agency which allocates funding to Regional Flood Defence Committees for both new capital schemes and to maintain existing defences on the basis of national priorities to ensure that the funding is spent in the best way possible. Delivery is managed through the Environment Agency's regional offices.
The following table provides a regional analysis of Government funding to the Environment Agency for 2008-09 and 2009-10.
| Table 1: DEFRA Grant in aid to the Environment Agency Regions 2008-09 to 2009-10 | ||||||||
| £ million | ||||||||
| Anglian | Midlands | North East | North West | Southern | South West | Thames | Total | |
In April 2006 the Environment Agency took on responsibility for the administration of capital grants payable to local authorities and Internal Drainage Boards under delegation from DEFRA for all schemes promoted under the Land Drainage Act and for schemes under the Coast Protection Act from April 2008.
In 2008-09 and 2009-10, £64 million was allocated in each year for projects delivered by these bodies. In both years the Environment Agency fully utilised the entire grant-in-aid allocation on its own projects or those delivered by local authorities and Internal Drainage Boards
Another major tranche of funding since 2007 has been allocated to taking forward the Pitt review recommendations over the period 2008-09 to 2010-11.
As noted in Annex A of the Progress Report (published 15 December 2009) on The Government's response to Sir Michael Pitt's review of the summer 2007 floods, up
to £34.5 million will be allocated by DEFRA to delivery organisations to help cover the additional costs of taking forward the recommendations they are responsible for.
The following table shows that a total of £20.2 million has been allocated to date to individual bodies and agencies.
The break-down of the major funding schemes originating from Pitt review recommendations is as follows:
1. Property level grant scheme
DEFRA is committed to encouraging the adoption of property level protection and resilience, especially where community protection is not available or planned for in the near future.
Local authorities allocated grants from the first round of the £5.5 million property level grant scheme (announced in June 2009 by the Secretary of State) amounted to £3 million. As yet, no claims for grant have been made against these allocations. Table 3 shows the geographical break-down of recipients.
| Table 3: Local authority recipients of property level grant scheme funding | ||
| Local authority | Environment Agency region | Amount awarded (£) |
On 18 August the Secretary of State announced £16 million funding to help local authorities tackle surface water flooding.
£9.7 million was been awarded to 77 local authorities for areas where evidence shows that the risk and potential impact of surface water flooding could be highest. Local authorities for all other areas will also be able to bid for a share of £5 million to help them deal with known local flooding problems. £1 million has been allocated for building skills and capacity within local authorities. The £9.7 million funding has been allocated to the following local authorities. The first payments are being made in December 2009 and will then be made monthly until the end of March 2011. All London borough funding is being made through the Drain London Forum.
| Table 4: Local authority recipients of SWMP funding | |
| County or unitary authority | Funding received (£000) |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |