Environment Agency publishes annual report on flood and coastal erosion risk

Following the storms, record rainfall and river levels which lead to widespread flooding across the North of England during December 2015, 17,000 homes and businesses were affected by this chaos. Flood risk assets protected around 12,500 properties during these floods in early December 2015 and about 10,900 over the Christmas period. Without them, the damage to lives and livelihoods would have been very much worse. The Environment Agency, local councils and internal drainage boards completed 173 schemes during the year, reducing flood risk to almost 49,000 homes and coastal erosion risk to over 5,500 homes.

Part of the government’s response to the flooding was the announcement of a £75 million fund for the restoration and repair of flood defences. This included £10 million to repair the Foss Barrier, which was damaged during the storms.

The Agency said the government and risk management authorities are together reviewing the lessons learnt from 2015 to 2016 and building them into the future of flood risk management.

For more information on this and to download a copy of the report please click here to view the document on the gov.uk website