Rules governing how flood mitigation funding is spent must be relaxed so local authorities can allocate more to routine maintenance to help protect infrastructure assets, according to a leading industry body.

 

The Association of Drainage Authorities is calling for capital and revenue funding to be brought together so more attention can be focused on the “far less attractive” yet “vitally important” business of maintenance.

 

The Association was speaking after extreme weather in northern England during December led to widespread flooding and the collapse of several roads and bridges. 

 

Chief executive Innes Thomson told TP Weekly News: “Walk around streets in towns and villages and you will see how many gullies are blocked and the reason is not enough is being done to do basic maintenance to keep the road network operating. It is vitally important to control water that comes off road surfaces and for it to go into properly designed drainage systems.

 

“Our answer is to have an overall pot of money invested in water level and flood risk management. We argue that capital and revenue spending is rebalanced so that more can be invested in day to day work. We want to see more local decision making powers over how money is spent. This all boils down to Treasury rules which are specific that you cannot mix the two funding streams.”

 

A spokesman for HM Treasury said there are no plans to bring capital and revenue spending together for flood mitigation.

 

Calls have also been made for inappropriate development on land prone to flooding to be curtailed and for an independent review into the recent floods to update the Pitt Review of 2007.

 

CIHT Board of Trustees member Matthew Lugg said: “There is a lot of pressure to build houses, but it is a scandal to develop in areas known to have had flooding problems. There should be more powers to prevent inappropriate development.”

 

A Government spokesman responded by saying that the Environment Agency provides advice on whether or not to grant permission for new houses, but that final decisions rest with local authorities. He added: “We have put in place strong safeguards to stop inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding and are delivering the homes this country needs by taking forward plans to build homes on suitable brownfield land.”

 

Mr Lugg also called for a “stocktake” of the recommendations following the Pitt Review in 2007 and the Transport Resilience Review of 2014 to ensure that lessons identified have been learnt. “We probably need a ‘Pitt Report 2’ to identify what more we need to do so that we do not throw money at flooding without some thorough analysis,” he said.

 

Last summer the influential Committee on Climate Change advised Government that surface water flood risk “is not being adequately addressed” and added that increasing numbers of existing properties will be at high risk of flooding in future. Lord Krebs of the Committee told BBC Radio 4 on 29 December: “The biggest single risk from climate change for this country is the increased likelihood of flooding.

 

“We have in our report to Parliament highlighted this as the number one risk and we have said that the Government needs to rethink its whole strategy of managing flood risk. I hope that as a result of the recent events, the Government will look again.”

 

Following the recent floods Government announced £40M of funding to help rebuild flood hit roads in Cumbria and Lancashire. Highways England will start design and construction work to repair the A591 and investigate what is required to restore the A6 Eamont Bridge and B5320 Pooley Bridge.

 

(Photo: alh1 and licensed for reuse under this Creative Common Licence)