The NFU continues to call on the government to do more to close the £500 million shortfall in flood defence investment. Given the number of extreme weather events in the last decade it is imperative that the Government commits to increasing spending on flood management so that we’re better prepared for an uncertain future climate. It is therefore imperative that the government commits to increasing spending on flood management.
Today, the Government published its response to a recent EFRA Committee report on the winter flooding of 2013/2014, in which the Committee agreed with the NFU’s concerns about investment in maintenance.
The NFU believes that renewed investment needs to be focused on those areas with the highest chance of flooding and on better and more regular maintenance of our rivers and flood defences.
Funding should be balanced across both urban and rural areas and for communities and businesses, including agriculture.
Minette Batters, NFU Deputy President, said: “As we wrote in our NFU Flooding Manifesto, we need increased spending on action to reduce flooding. The Government must ensure it uses all the tools in the box whether that’s dredging, building and repairing banks, or cutting back vegetation downstream; or storing water and improving infiltration in the right places upstream. Our ability to increase food production in the face a more volatile climate depends on it.
“Providing flexibility for the Environment Agency to switch flood defence funds according to need between capital and maintenance activities would be another positive step forwards. We must reverse the decline in the maintenance of our rivers, sea defences and pumps across the country.”
The case of dairy farmers Brian and Mary Hutchings in Moorland on the Somerset Levels illustrates the plight of hundreds of producers across England and Wales who were flooded last winter.
Their stock was evacuated to neighbouring farms, as their farmhouse, fields and outbuildings were submerged for well over a month by floodwater.
With the help of other farmers and the local community they’re bringing their home and business back to life.
The NFU helped administer forage aid generously donated by farmers to those hit by the crisis in the South West, successfully lobbied the Government for a £10 million Farm Recovery Fund and effectively campaigned for dredging on the Somerset Levels and Moors.
But there’s more to do. So for all those farmers who have seen their ability to earn a sustainable living threatened by unmanaged and uncompensated flooding, we, like Brian and Mary, will not stop.