Press Release - Building and maintaining river and coastal
flood defences in England
15 June 2007
The Environment Agency has made a number of improvements in the
management of flood risk since 2001. Despite this, the Agency has
not met its target to maintain 63 per cent of England’s flood
defence systems in their target condition.
A report out today by the National Audit Office highlights a
number of improvements to the management of flood risk made by the
Environment Agency since the NAO last reported on this subject in
2001. The Agency has taken on greater oversight of flood risk in
England, including the management of important rivers which were
previously managed by local authorities and internal drainage
boards. The Agency has protected more people by improving the
standard of flood protection for 100,000 households between 2003-04
and 2005-06, improved its management of flood defence construction
projects, and developed a more rigorous system for classifying,
recording and monitoring the condition of flood defence assets.
But the report points out that, since 2001, general conditions
of assets have not improved significantly, with 50 per cent of
linear defences and 61 per cent of flood defence structures in good
condition or better in 2007 compared to 64 per cent and 57 per cent
respectively at the time of the NAO’s previous report. There are
several reasons for this.
The number of recorded assets has increased significantly since
2001. And the Agency has adopted a risk based approach which sets
less demanding condition targets for those assets considered lower
risk. In practice, the Agency’s investigation of the autumn 2000
floods found that instances of flood defences failing were rare
(less than one per cent of flooding was due to such instances).
Nevertheless, as today’s report notes, only 57 per cent of all
flood risk asset systems, and 46 per cent of high risk systems,
such as those protecting urban areas, had achieved their target
condition by March 2007, with potential risks should a flood occur.
Spending on locally managed construction and maintenance work
continues to vary across the country and does not yet adequately
reflect the risk of flooding in each region.
The Agency estimates it will need a further £150 million a year
to bring all flood defence systems up to their target condition.
The report concludes that there is some scope for the Agency to
reduce the need for additional funding by improving cost
effectiveness.
Many flood risk systems include assets which the Agency does not
maintain. These assets are maintained by third parties such as
local authorities and private owners. Although these assets tend to
be in poorer condition, the report found that the Agency does not
yet have a national policy for dealing with them.
The Agency’s local construction and maintenance regimes are
responding to emerging issues such as the greater emphasis on high
risk defences, but there are regional variations in the proportion
of high risk systems at target condition (from 18 per cent in the
South West to 60 per cent in the Southern region) and the
proportion of maintenance funds directed at high risk systems (24
per cent in the North East compared to 67 per cent in the Midlands
and Thames regions).
The Agency has improved risk management and cost control of
major flood defence construction projects but the report identifies
scope for further improvement in evaluating projects after their
completion and streamlining the funding and approvals process.
The report identifies weaknesses in the Agency’s data systems. The
Agency has substantially increased the number of assets recorded on
its database, but records are not yet complete and other operating
authorities are reluctant to use the system due to cost and
technical difficulties. The Agency’s asset database was not
designed as a work management system and cannot hold data on the
maintenance history of each flood defence or clearly link asset
inspection results to records of maintenance carried out. The
Agency has taken steps to improve system performance but the
database is still unwieldy when extracting large volumes of
data.
The NAO recommends that the Agency should focus more
consistently on flood defences which are medium or high risk to
bring them up to target condition. It should develop a national
policy for dealing with third party assets and draw upon the
findings of the planned benchmarking exercise to generate real
maintenance efficiency savings by applying good practice from both
inside and outside the organisation. It should also follow up
earlier inspections to confirm that key remedial works to flood
defences have been completed satisfactorily and address weaknesses
in data systems
Sir John Bourn said today:
“The Agency has made progress in improving how it
manages England’s flood defences since I last reported in 2001. But
climate change is likely to increase the number of homes and
businesses at risk of flooding in the future.”
“If the Environment Agency has any chance of meeting its
future targets it must now focus more consistently on improving the
condition of its high risk flood defences. Its work in the best
performing regions shows that this is possible.”
Notes for Editors:
- Over 2 million homes and businesses are at risk of flooding
each year in England, affecting 4.3 million people. Existing
research suggests it can cost up to £40,000 per household to put
right the damage caused by flooding. The risks of flooding are
expected to rise as a result of climate change and as more houses
are built.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard
copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702
3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 27/07
All enquiries to Neil Gadhok, NAO Press Office:
Tel: 020 7798 7020
Mobile: 07796 940746