Landowners hold the key to protecting rural communities, reducing
the risk of flooding, increasing resilience to drought and
improving water quality, according to a new report released by
the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).
With the first few months of 2021 seeing one of the driest Aprils
on record, followed by one of the wettest Mays, it is clear that
we are seeing the impacts of climate change and that they are
here to stay. Some farms were submerged in water for over
three months this past
winter, which led to the inability to plant
crops for an entire year. And with winters getting milder and
wetter due to climate change, the Met Office predicts that the
risk of floods has increased by at least 20% and up to 90%.
The CLA Water Strategy: a vision for the water environment to
2030 policy paper, released by the CLA which represents
28,000 landowners and farmers across England and Wales, found
that under the right policy framework, landowners could play a
key role in improving the wider water environment by harnessing
nature-based solutions, at comparatively low cost.
Currently, the Environment Agency (EA), Natural Resources Wales
(NRW) and Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs), alongside
landowners and farmers, share responsibility for flood defences.
However, the EA and NRW are often too slow to respond to
essential maintenance of existing flood defences, leaving many
communities vulnerable to serious flooding.
Many landowners are already stepping-up and protect their local
communities, but are often crippled by uncertainty on whether
they can undertake the maintenance work themselves. Community
supported organisations like internal drainage boards, or
locally-led partnerships like the Somerset Rivers Authority are
often far better placed than the EA or NRW to maintain main
rivers, so the CLA argues these organisations should be allowed
to take over responsibility for main rivers across England and
Wales.
Landowners using their land to mitigate flood risks through
Natural Flood Risk Management (NFM) projects has been proven to
be extremely successful.* These projects can involve creating
wetlands and saltmarshes, or planting trees to stabilise
riverbanks, with the aim of slowing the flow of water, helping it
to be absorbed, while also improving biodiversity, water quality,
water availability and carbon storage.
To empower landowners and support them in their desire to protect
local communities and mitigate flood risk, the government needs
to provide adequate support through policy. To make this happen,
the CLA is calling for:
-
Rights and responsibilities of landowners –
the EA and NRW to make the rights and responsibilities of
landowners clear to allow for effective and flexible flood
defence work, helping to avoid unnecessary flooding of rural
properties.
-
Maintaining flood defence assets – £75m of
funding per year for maintenance of existing flood defence
assets, on top of the funding already earmarked for new flood
defence assets, that would provide cost effective flood
defences while improving the environment.
-
Catchment-focused flood management –government
to allow for regional approaches and flexibility, including the
effective use of Natural Flood Risk Management projects and
support for ‘de-maining’ programmes looking to transfer flood
risk responsibilities to the best-placed body to do so.
Mark Bridgeman, President of the CLA, said:
“We want to see the Environment Agency and Natural Resources
Wales uphold their responsibilities for essential maintenance,
and where they are unable to adequately maintain flood defences,
to transfer responsibility to the best placed organisation to do
so. In some circumstances this will be to local internal drainage
boards, specially established flood risk partnerships like the
Somerset Rivers Authority, or, where appropriate, local land
managers. Many of these land managers already play a crucial role
in using their land to prevent local communities and businesses
bearing the brunt of flood damage.
“Of course, this needs to come with the right government
support and funding. But the solution to flood defences is
sitting right on our doorstep at the fraction of the price of new
infrastructure: natural flood risk management.”
