Building and maintaining river and coastal flood defences in England

Eviromet Agecy Buildig ad maitaiig river ad coastal flood defeces i Eglad LONDON: The Statioery Office 13.50 Ordered by the House of Commos to be prited o 11 Jue 2007 REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL HC 528 Sessio 2006-2007 15 Jue 2007

SummARy 1 Aroud 469,000 households ad busiesses i Eglad are at sigificat risk of floodig. Floodig ca damage property ad belogigs, ad ay householders affected face the stress ad icoveiece of havig to move ito temporary accommodatio while their home is cleaed, allowed to dry out ad repaired. 1 The cost of floodig will deped o the scale of damage ad ature of the property, but existig research suggests that flood repairs ca be up to 40,000 per household. 2 The Eviromet Agecy expects the risks of floodig are likely to rise sigificatly over the ext cetury as a result of, for example, climate chage ad the buildig of ew houses. 2 The Eviromet Agecy (the Agecy) is resposible for maagig the risk of floodig from mai rivers ad the sea i Eglad ad Wales. 3 The Agecy s fuctios iclude the costructio of ew flood defeces ( 162 millio i 2006-07), the maiteace ad operatio of existig flood defeces ( 176 millio), as well as raisig public awareess of the dagers of floodig ad respodig whe such icidets arise ( 39 millio). The Agecy has developed iformatio ad warig systems so that the public ca determie whether their property is liable to floodig ad register to receive automated advace warigs if a flood is likely to occur. Miimisig the fiacial cost of floodig, however, largely depeds upo the effectiveess of the flood defeces, ad this report focuses o the Agecy s costructio of ew flood defeces ad the maiteace of 24,000 miles of flood defeces ad 46,000 flood defece structures. 4 BuILDING AND maintaining RIvER AND COASTAL FLOOD DEFENCES IN ENGLAND

Summary text cotiued 3 At the time of our last report o flood defeces i 2001 4, 20 regioal ad local flood defece committees were resposible for overseeig the maagemet of flood defeces i Eglad. Sice the, the umbers have bee streamlied to 11 regioal committees ad fudig arragemets have chaged so that the Eviromet Agecy ow receives a sigle grat-i-aid from the Departmet for Eviromet, Food ad Rural Affairs (the Departmet) to allocate to the committees. Whilst the 11 flood defece committees still have a formal role i flood risk maagemet i their local area, the Agecy has started to recommed priorities to them o the basis of eeds atioally. The Agecy has also take over resposibility for the maagemet of critical ordiary watercourses from local authorities ad iteral draiage boards, ad the Departmet is cosiderig whether the Agecy should also take o a greater role i coastal protectio from local govermet. The key improvemets i performace we idetified durig our examiatio were: Greater oversight of flood risks. The Agecy implemeted the 2002 Spedig Review ad recommedatios from the 2003 Flood ad Coastal Defece Fudig Review which icluded takig o ew duties, such as the resposibility for certai importat rivers (kow as critical ordiary water courses) from local authorities ad iteral draiage boards ad itegrated them ito its existig ispectio ad maiteace regimes. I additio, the Agecy is developig a more strategic approach to maagig systems of eighbourig defeces withi idividual river catchmet areas as part of a shift i thikig, by the Agecy ad the Departmet, from flood defece to flood risk maagemet more broadly. Improved maagemet of major costructio projects. Our examiatio cofirmed that the Agecy had improved its cost cotrol by establishig a cetralised team to oversee more complex costructio work ad through better risk maagemet. The forecast outtur costs of the 43 major projects completed i 2005-06 were 7.2 per cet less tha the total precostructio estimates. Protectig more people. The Agecy improved the stadard of protectio for 100,000 houses betwee 2003-04 ad 2005-06 agaist the target which the Departmet set for the Agecy of 80,000. The Agecy appears to be o track to exceed a secod target to protect 85,000 properties i Eglad ad Wales betwee 2005-06 ad 2007-08. I additio, the Agecy has mapped the probability of floodig for almost all the lad i Eglad ad Wales. Over 99 per cet of properties are ow covered ad the iformatio is available to householders for free at its website (www.eviromet-agecy.gov.uk). Almost 300,000 of those properties at highest risk are ow registered o the Agecy s free, direct flood warig service. The Agecy has established a more rigorous system for classifyig, recordig ad moitorig the coditio of flood defece assets. The Agecy s database icluded a more comprehesive list of flood defeces compared to whe we coducted our previous examiatio. Our cosultats, Atkis, also cofirmed that the ispectio process developed by the Agecy was effective ad practical. 4 Buildig o this progress, this report sets out those areas where there is room for further improvemets i the Agecy s value for moey performace. The Committee of Public Accouts previous report o flood risk maagemet i 2001 cocluded that complex orgaisatioal arragemets had led to icosistet service levels across Eglad. 5 Although the arragemets have bee simplified, levels of expediture o locally maaged costructio ad maiteace work cotiue to vary across the coutry ad do ot yet adequately reflect the risk of floodig i each regio. I additio, there may be a imbalace betwee the Agecy s focus o the costructio of ew flood defeces ad its maiteace of existig assets. The Agecy has ot met its target to maitai 63 per cet of flood defece systems i target coditio; ad the Agecy estimates that oly 57 per cet of all systems ad 46 per cet of high risk systems, such as those protectig urba areas, are i their target coditio, with cosequet risks should a flood occur. 6 I practice, however, the Agecy s ivestigatio of the autum 2000 floods foud that istaces of flood defeces failig were rare (less tha oe per cet of floodig was due to such istaces). 7 Util the Agecy develops more comprehesive data o the typical lifespa ad maiteace costs of its assets, it is difficult to establish future resource requiremets accurately, although the Agecy has estimated that it requires a additioal 150 millio a year. I the meatime, there is scope to improve cost-effectiveess ad thus reduce ay additioal fudig that may be required. Buildig ad maitaiig river ad coastal flood defeces i Eglad 5

5 To improve cost-effectiveess, the Agecy eeds to address: Icosistecies i the maagemet of assets across the coutry. Our aalysis of Agecy expediture foud that whilst all regios spet a higher proportio of their maiteace budget o high risk systems tha o low ad medium risk systems, the share o high risk systems varied from 24 per cet i the North East to 67 per cet i the Midlads ad Thames. The variatios reflect the fact that the Agecy has oly recetly adopted a risk-based approach ad are also a result of historic imbalaces i the fudig available to regioal ad local flood defece committees before the Agecy started to receive a sigle grat-i-aid from the Departmet i 2004-05. The absece of reliable data o the lifespas of assets while scietific research is ogoig. As a result, the focus is o repairig faults idetified rather tha weighig up future maiteace requiremets agaist the cost of asset replacemet. The Agecy cofirmed that it is plaig to develop asset plas to address this for a sample of 200 flood risk maagemet systems across all areas durig 2007. Decidig whether a asset should be replaced ad the best time to do this should also be drive by the flood risk maagemet policy for the whole river catchmet or stretch of coastlie. The Agecy oly expects, however, to complete 40 of its 68 Catchmet Flood Maagemet Plas (which set out a log term strategic pla for how flood risk should be maaged i a river catchmet or basi) by its December 2007 deadlie ad has set a ew target for completio of December 2008. The lack of a clear maagemet policy for dealig with assets owed ad maaged by third parties. May of the flood defece assets o the Agecy s database are owed ad maaged by third parties ad the proportio i good or very good coditio is lower tha for Agecy maitaied assets. The Agecy has very limited powers to force other bodies to improve the coditio of their assets but does ot ecessarily otify the relevat third party whe Agecy ispectios idetify faults. The Agecy is developig a atioal policy o the maagemet of third party assets ad seekig to codify regioal lad draiage by-laws which give powers over owers of structures obstructig the river chael. The eed for further chages to existig work practices. The Agecy s local costructio ad maiteace regimes are still iflueced by logstadig workig practices but are slowly respodig to emergig issues, such as the greater emphasis o high risk defeces. The Agecy employed a workforce of 1,400 staff i 2005-06 (at a cost of 45 millio) compared to 1,570 i 2001 to respod to floodig icidets, maitai flood defeces ad river chael capacity, carry out evirometal ad coservatio works ad mior costructio projects. 8 From April 2007, the Agecy substatially revised the pay structure of the workforce ad reduced the umber of allowaces. The Agecy had ot yet devised commo stadards for some areas of its work, such as grass cuttig, however, ad has thus made oly limited progress i bechmarkig costs betwee areas ad with other orgaisatios. The focus o the costructio of ew flood defeces to protect large umbers of additioal households ad to meet the Departmet s Public Service Agreemet target is ulikely to beefit smaller rural commuities. These less desely populated commuities have ot geerally scored highly eough o the Departmet s assessmet system to qualify for fudig. I these circumstaces, other possible solutios may be applicable, such as temporary or demoutable flood defeces. The use of such defeces depeds o the geographical coditios o site, such as whether the groud is level. Temporary ad demoutable defeces have proved successful i trials i the Midlads but have ot bee widely used elsewhere. The Departmet ad the Agecy expect a ew prioritisatio system based o outcome measures to provide a more balaced approach. The proportio of costructio fuds spet developig proposals, which limits the umber of schemes that could otherwise be built. Accordig to the Agecy s data, 76 millio out of the 266 millio costructio expediture i 2005-06 was o programme ad project developmet, amoutig to 29 per cet. Our aalysis of plaed sped i 2007-08 idicates that oly 33 ew projects are expected to start ad 84 per cet of fuds will be utilised o existig commitmets. The Agecy has a iitiative uder way to streamlie the decisio makig process for flood defece costructio schemes. 6 Buildig ad maitaiig river ad coastal flood defeces i Eglad

Weakesses i its data systems. The Agecy has substatially icreased the umber of assets recorded o its database, but records are ot yet complete ad other operatig authorities are reluctat to use the system due to cost ad techical difficulties. The database was ot desiged as a asset or work maagemet system ad it caot hold data o the maiteace history of each flood defece or clearly lik the ispectio results to records of maiteace carried out. The Agecy has take steps to improve system performace but it is still uwieldy whe extractig large volumes of data. The Agecy has set a umber of targets relatig to maitaiig ad buildig defeces i Eglad but has foud it difficult to collect sufficiet data to moitor these effectively. For example, it is uable to produce a report which gives a accurate ad satisfactory report of system coditio, partly because ot all the required data have yet bee etered. By 2006-07, the year i which it was supposed to be met, the Agecy had oly just maaged to set a baselie agaist which to measure progress agaist its target to reduce the cost of developmet ad iceptio to 20 per cet of total project costs. The Agecy has recetly started to collect a cetral list of all flood defece projects, icludig those which are regioally maaged. The Agecy coducted oly 26 post project appraisals betwee April 2001 ad March 2006. 6 We recommed that the Agecy: i) Focuses attetio more cosistetly o the maiteace of those flood defeces which are cosidered to be medium or high risk. Area maagers should develop maiteace strategies ad work programmes to reflect this approach. ii) iii) Implemets a atioal maagemet policy for dealig with third party assets. Whilst the Agecy may ot have the authority to eforce repairs, the Agecy should evertheless brig such defects to the attetio of the ladower or third party. The strategy should iclude a risk-based approach of writig to ladowers or other third parties to highlight ay sigificat deficiecies idetified durig ispectio, the cosequet risk to eighbourig lad ad property, ad what actios they cosider are ecessary. Draws upo the fidigs of the plaed bechmarkig exercise to geerate real maiteace efficiecy savigs by applyig good practice from similar public ad private sector orgaisatios ad from withi the Agecy s areas ad regios more widely across the Agecy. iv) Itroduces the plaed improvemets to traiig for staff ivolved i maiteace ad emergecy respose durig 2007. Regioal maagers should icorporate a miimum traiig requiremet ito staff objectives to moitor ad ecourage attedace o suitable traiig courses. v) Coducts a review i accordace with OGC good practice at the ed of each major project to determie whether beefits were realised ad idetify ay lessos leared. The extet of each review should be tailored to the size ad ature of the associated scheme, ad the results held cetrally so that they are accessible by other areas ad regios. vi) vii) Streamlies its approval process so that detailed plas are ot commissioed util the proposed project has bee through a simplified gateway review ad work is likely to start withi, for example, the ext two to three years, drawig o the curret project by the Agecy to reduce the costs of project developmet. Make improvemets to the computer asset database, i particular to: Assess the log term suitability of the curret computer database ad if applicable, set out a timetable for the possible developmet of a replacemet, drawig o the outcome of its curret review; Improve its suite of reports which ca be ru atioally from the asset database each moth to moitor progress by areas ad regios i improvig the coditio of high ad medium risk systems, improvig data quality ad completig ispectios; Improve the quality ad usability of data o asset maagemet by deliverig its targets for areas to iclude all iformatio o the database, ad icludig a cross referece o each ispectio report to cofirm that the remedial work has bee doe ad where the paper based record ca be foud; Cofirm that, followig ispectios, key remedial works idetified have bee completed satisfactorily, applyig a risk-based approach so that more sigificat defects are followed up by ispectors, while more mior works ca be checked by the maiteace maager o site. Buildig ad maitaiig river ad coastal flood defeces i Eglad 7

1 The Eviromet Agecy s aalysis of the flood zoes i Eglad ad Wales Newcastle Leeds Hull Liverpool Machester Sheffield Birmigham Norwich Lodo Bristol Exeter Brighto Source: Eviromet Agecy NOTE The map does ot take accout of flood defeces. 8 Buildig ad maitaiig river ad coastal flood defeces i Eglad