Work to start on 93 flood defences

7 February 2013 Last updated at 07:59 ET

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said flood victims who will not benefit from today's announcement should "keep applying"

Construction is to start on 93 new flood defences in England this year to improve protection for more than 64,000 homes, the government has said.

It added that there was extra funding for projects to unlock economic growth.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that new defences in Exeter, for example, would create more than 1,000 jobs and protect businesses employing 4,700 people.

But Labour said spending on defences against flooding had fallen.

Defra said that it expected 165,000 homes to be better protected by 2015 - some 20,000 more than its previous target.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said ?2.3bn was being invested by government up to 2015, with an additional ?148m in partnership funding contributions from local councils, businesses and private investors.

He said: "The 93 schemes given the green light today will bring huge relief to tens of thousands of homes and businesses that have lived with the fear of flood waters hitting their doors.

"They can get on with their daily lives and work knowing that there are well-built defences."

Some of the largest projects include:

• More than ?80m on coastal defences at Rossall, Lancashire, improving protection to more than 6,000 homes
• A partnership-funded ?50.5m scheme in Leeds that, Defra says, will protect 495 businesses and create 18,000 jobs in the city
• Improved protection for 14,000 homes from ?14.5m flood defences at Grimsby Docks in Lincolnshire
• A ?28.6m sea defence in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
• New sea defences at Anchorsholme in Lancashire, at a cost of ?28.4m
• More than ?16m being spent on River Thames tidal defences
• A ?10m scheme on the east bank of the River Arun, protecting Littlehampton in West Sussex

But Labour's shadow environment secretary, Mary Creagh, said the government's investment in flood defences actually represented a cut.

"When we left government we were spending ?354m a year on defending towns and cities and the coast from flooding," she said. "Even with today's announcement and the new money they announced before Christmas, this year they'll be spending ?294m.

"So there's a significant cut, there's an ongoing cost to people that they're seeing reflected in their insurance, and while today's schemes are very welcome, partnership funding makes it quite difficult for the Environment Agency to plan. "

Environment minister Richard Benyon said the schemes announced on Thursday were those going ahead in the next financial year, and that more would follow in the future - possibly including areas hit by flooding before Christmas.

"There are a number of schemes that will need to be taken forward in the areas that have had serious flooding, but no scheme goes from commissioning, from the idea of thinking them up, to commissioning in a year," he said.

"These are complicated engineering projects many of them, and we have to be absolutely conscious that we're dealing with taxpayers' money."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21364056#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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