The UK Government has announced an additional £16 million funding boost for internal drainage boards (IBDs) to boost farm and rural flood protection
Floods Minister Emma Hardy announced today (Monday 31 March) that more than 400,000 hectares of agricultural land across England will receive a significant further boost to its flood protection, following a £16m boost for IBDs.
Investing in modernising IBDs across England
IBDs are the vital local public bodies that manage water levels for agricultural and environmental needs across the country. They serve 1.2 million hectares of land, covering 9.7% of the country’s total land area, operate around 500 pumping stations, and maintain more than 22,000 kilometres (13,700 miles) of watercourses.
This funding will help with IBD operational expenses following the 2023/24 winter storms, including repairing pumping stations. Furthermore, the investment means the existing IBDs can be modernised and upgraded to improve flood protection and futureproofing.
This project is part of the Government’s highly anticipated Plan for Change, with hopes of improving resilience for farmland, flood protection infrastructure, and rural communities.
Floods Minister Emma Hardy said: “Flooding can take a devastating toll on farmers and rural communities. This additional funding will ensure rural flood assets are more resilient or fully replaced, putting IDBs on a firm footing to deliver their vital work on flood and water management for years to come.
Thousands of properties and tens of thousands of hectares of farmland are already seeing their flood resilience improved as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, and today’s further investment will help support our farmers further.”
Supporting farmers and rural communities with flood protection
The Government has already delivered projects through the IBD Fund to improve flood protection and infrastructure, including replacing pumps and pumping stations, mainly built in the 1960s, that were damaged in recent storms and floods.
Another notable use of the IBD fund is a £1.3m project to install four new pumps at Marshfield and Lapperditch pumping stations in the Lower Severn catchment has just completed works, meaning the pumps will operate for 25 years minimum. The pumps will support the River Severn flood protection defences, 12 km of roads, fish and eels, and less time farmland spends underwater.
Moreover, the funding has been used to repair flood embankments, desilt drainage ditches, install telemetry and water control structures for remote operation, and improve fish and eel passages.
Bill Symons, clerk to the York Consortium of Drainage Boards who benefitted from the Fund, said: “The IDB Fund has allowed us to deliver more sustainable, higher quality works on flood infrastructure badly damaged by storms and flooding. This was proving to be an expensive, unfunded legacy.
The funding has reduced financial pressure locally at a critical time after a period of flooding and loss of productivity in agriculture, along with shortages of funds in local authorities.
We have used local workforces and contractors to deliver some of our more expensive and problematic bank slips, and delivered more than we could do normally, thanks to the fund.”
