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Investing for the future. Flood and coastal risk management in England - a long term investment strategy

The latest climate change predictions indicate that flooding and coastal erosion are likely to increase in the future. The long-term investment strategy sets out the scale of the investment needed to meet this challenge over the next 25 years.

What does our long-term investment strategy tell us?

It sets out the best available evidence on the choices the people of England face about how much money should be invested in managing the increasing risk of flooding and coastal erosion due to climate change and asset deterioration over the next 25 years (2010-2035).

Our modelling shows that investment in building and maintaining of flood defences will need to almost double to £1billion a year (compared to £570million now) by 2035.  This figure excludes the cost of managing the risk of surface and ground water flooding and other activities such as flood warning and development control.

How will future investment be funded?

Government provides the majority of funding for flood and coastal risk management.

In his independent review of the summer 2007 floods, Sir Michael Pitt recommended that locally-funded flood defences should become a bigger feature of flood and coastal risk management.

We would welcome a public debate to identify other possible sources of funding, enabling local communities to contribute to reducing flood risk in their locality.

What work has already been done?

In the ten years from 1999 to 2009, more than 250,000 additional households benefited from investment in new or improved defences. We completed 90 flood defence schemes in the two years since 2007, providing increased protection to over 58,000 properties. The strategy also explores how this important work could be done more effectively in the future.

Download the report

Case studies