- South West Bedfordshire is set to benefit from £145,338 of investment to help protect against flooding.
- The funding comes as part of the Government’s £860 million investment to protect communities from flooding in 2021-22, and part of a wider record investment of £5.2 billion into protection from flooding over the next six years.
- A consultation will also be launched in the autumn looking at how to better protect frequently flooded communities.
16 more homes and businesses in South West Bedfordshire are to be better protected from flooding by 2026-27, as part of new plans published by the Government alongside a £5.2 billion investment.
The Flood and Coastal Erosion Investment Plan outlines how this record £5.2 billion of investment over the next six years will be spent, including more than £860 million in 2021-22 on boosting the design and construction of more than 1,000 flooding alleviation schemes.
The funding will help to protect a total of 336,000 properties in England by 2026-2027, including 16 in South West Bedfordshire, helping to avoid £32 billion in wider economic damages and reducing the national flood risk by up to 11 per cent across the country.
Two projects on the FCRM Capital Programme fall within the South West Bedfordshire constituency. Both of which will be led by Central Bedfordshire Council. The first project is a Surface Water Flood scheme looking at a range of options to mitigate flooding from overland flow and drainage capacity issues to properties along Heron Road. The second project will be primarily a study at this stage as approximately 77 properties have shown to be at risk within the current mapping extent. The study will provide a more detailed analysis of intervention, costs and benefits to identify a preferred package of works to reduce flood risk in Leighton Buzzard.
The funding will be accompanied by a consultation in the autumn, where the Government will look at how to better protect frequently flooded communities, following a call for evidence earlier this year.
It will consider how to strengthen the assessment of local circumstances, such as where areas have flooded on multiple occasions, when allocating funding during the six-year plan.
The Government is also bringing in tighter guidance for planning authorities as part of a package of actions to better protect and prepare communities for flooding.
Improvements to flood insurance such as measures to allow flooded households to claim extra money to install property flood resilience measures – like air brick covers, flood doors and flood resistant paint – and measures to tackle the risks from surface water flooding are also included in the plans.
Commenting, Andrew Selous MP said:
“Flooding can devastate communities – too many homes and families in South West Bedfordshire have sadly fallen victim to this, and so we must put the necessary protections in place to tackle it.
The £145,338 to protect 16 homes and businesses in South West Bedfordshire will help to deliver on this by boosting the design and construction of flood alleviation schemes and putting the necessary measures in place to protect homes from flooding.
This will help to guard homes and families from the devastating impact of flooding, allowing people to feel reassured about the safety of their home.”