The Environment Agency (EA) has cut its forecast for the number of additional properties that will be better protected from flooding by 40% since plans were first unveiled in 2020, according to a new report by the National Audit Office. EA estimates that inflation accounts for between a half and two-thirds of this reduction.

Resilience to flooding sets out that EA has reduced its forecast of the number of properties it will be able to better protect by 2027 from 336,000 to 200,000, a reduction of 40 per cent. In addition, EA is removing 500 of the 2,000 new flood defence projects that were originally included in the programme. This is despite government doubling its capital funding in England in the six years to 2027 to £5.2 billion to combat the danger of flooding.

In the first two years of the government’s six-year flood and coastal erosion management programme, EA has improved protection from floods for 59,000 properties in England against a commitment when the programme was announced of better protecting 336,000 by 2027.

Link to press release and report.