‘Last week I reported the rather embarrassing discovery prompted by Friends of the Earth through a Freedom of Information request that little or no Defra money had been spent on Natural Flood Management (see below). Andrea Leadsom responding to an ex Defra minister – Richard Benyon – at Defra questions was able to report last week that £15m had been earmarked for such projects, thanks to the chancellor’s announcement in the autumn statement. In the past much has been learnt from Pathfinder packages and given the recent Green Alliance report it would seem worthwhile trying to maximise the learning from this investment not least for the post-Brexit farming investment.’ 

Water News November 24^th RE wrote …

Just as with property level schemes and surface water flooding projects which took years to come on line anything that doesn’t involve ‘big schemes’ tends to take a long time to come on stream in Defra. Perhaps Defra should look at what the World Business Council for Sustainable development have to say in supporting Natural Infrastructure! Two articles one based on the FoE Freedom of Information request and a briefing from the National Flood Forum. RE

Natural flood measures not being funded – FoE – Freedom of Information request

Guardian ‘Natural ways of preventing flooding such as planting trees have no government funding despite ministers repeatedly backing the idea, according to a freedom of information request by Friends of the Earth. Almost a year since devastating floods hits swathes of northern Britain, environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom, and floods minister, Thérèse Coffey, have both recently supported the approach, which aims to slow the flow of water off hills and reduce peak levels. But the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told Friends of the Earth (FoE) that “there is no funding earmarked specifically for natural flood management”. The response came shortly after a cross-party committee of MPs concluded earlier this month that natural ways of stopping floods must be a key part of protecting the nation as climate change intensifies rain storms.’ Click here to read more. 

National Flood Forum Newsletter feature a number of articles on Natural flood management (NFM) is an increasingly popular approach to managing flood risk around the country, so in this edition we take a closer look at what it’s all about, where it’s working, how communities are getting involved and consider some of the new tools that are being developed to help map catchments. NFM is about how we delay and speed up water flow through a catchment to reduce the peaks of water that often cause flooding.  We are seeing growing interest in it amongst our flood action groups because it is often more affordable than hard-engineered defences and it gives people a sense of ownership, purpose and practical involvement in reducing their flood risk. We are working with many communities to assess the viability of these schemes for their catchments. We also take a closer look at some of the figures that have been reported about the impact NFM can have and recognise that, on its own, it won’t solve a communities’ flooding problems, but that it can make up one part of the flood risk management jigsaw. You can read the bulletin here: November-2016_bulletin