This is a letter dated 4-1-2024 that I received from Defra
Thank you for your email of 26 October to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities about flood protection funding. Your email was passed to Defra and I am replying
as the Minister responsible for this policy area.
You mentioned that your ward is currently unprotected against flooding and has flooded several
times in the past. The Government recognises the severe impacts flooding can have on
people’s lives and livelihoods and I sympathise with anyone who has gone through this
experience.
As referred to in your email, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Royal Borough of Windsor
& Maidenhead (RBWM) are currently working on a flood alleviation scheme within the borough
– the Datchet to Hythe End flood improvement measures. This project will provide flood risk
protection to the communities that would previously have benefitted from the River Thames
Scheme’s third channel.
As you explain, the River Thames Scheme originally comprised three channels to alleviate
flooding across the RBWM and three boroughs in Surrey, along with Richmond and Kingston.
The original scheme was being funded by Government grant in aid and significant contributions
from Surrey County Council (of £237 million) and RBWM (of £54 million) along with funding
from other partners.
You also mentioned that the decision to remove the channel from the scheme that would have
benefitted your ward was made without consultation or notice. I understand from the EA that in
March 2020, RBWM informed the project’s Sponsor Group (which included the leaders of the
seven local authorities involved) that they could not make the £54 million contribution to the
scheme. At the project’s next meeting in July 2020, RBWM confirmed that whilst it would be
able to contribute, it would be at the lower amount of £10 million. The Sponsor Group decided
unanimously to progress with a two-channel scheme instead of pausing development to give
RBWM additional time to identify a funding solution. This decision was also supported by the
Cabinet Member and Leader of RBWM at the meeting.
I appreciate that this change to the River Thames Scheme must have been disappointing news
for your ward. The EA has informed me that the two-channel scheme still provides flood risk
reduction in RBWM. Work has continued at pace on the scheme and the EA will be holding a
statutory consultation on the Development Consent Order in January.
You also stated your view that your ward has been disadvantaged by the Government’s
partnership funding policy. The partnership funding policy (introduced in 2011) aims to create
greater partnership working between authorities, sectors, communities and others with an
interest in tackling flooding and coastal erosion. It provides a fair and consistent approach for
allocating grant in aid and securing wider benefits where others stand to benefit from a defence
scheme. This can include local and other government funding where applicable.
Defra undertook an independent evaluation of the partnership funding policy in 2018, which
was published in May 2019. The evaluation found that the partnership funding approach was
generally successful in meeting its policy objectives, despite some operational
challenges, having enabled more schemes to be delivered than would have been possible
under the previous approach of Government-only funding.
Many thanks for contacting me on this important issue.