Ilad Flood Defece REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL HC 299 Sessio 2000-2001: 15 March 2001 LONDON: The Statioery Office 0.00 Ordered by the House of Commos to be prited o 8 March 2001
executive summary I this chapter Overview 1 Our detailed fidigs 3 Our specific 4 recommedatios Overview 1 The floods i Eglad i 2000 demostrated the serious cosequeces which floodig ca have for people ad their property. 11,000 people were requested to evacuate their homes or busiesses. Some 10,000 properties were flooded, out of at least 150,000 i areas which were directly at risk. The raifall i autum 2000 was the greatest sice records geerally bega i 1766. I York, river levels rose higher tha the previous record of 1625. Forecast chages i climate, stormiess ad raifall patters durig this cetury are expected to lead to a icreased risk of floodig. May houses ad busiess premises i this coutry have bee, ad more are likely to be, built i flood plais. 2 The policy aim for flood defece is to reduce the risk to people ad the developed ad atural eviromet from floodig. Flood defeces are desiged to protect agaist flood evets of a particular magitude, expressed as risk i ay oe year. For example, defeces i urba areas may be built to provide protectio agaist flood evets of a size which might occur o average oce i oe hudred years or less. 3 The Miistry of Agriculture, Fisheries ad Food (the Miistry) has resposibility for establishig flood ad coastal defece policy i Eglad. It admiisters the legislatio that permits flood defece works to be carried out by others. It maitais a overview of flood defece ivestmet across Eglad. It has established ivestmet priorities ad high level targets for the Eviromet Agecy (the Agecy), local authorities ad Iteral Draiage Boards. The Miistry grat-aids some capital works. Other capital works by the Agecy ad maiteace activities are fuded mostly by levies o local authorities, who also fud directly their ow work o ordiary water courses. The Agecy has a duty to exercise a geeral supervisory role over all flood defece matters. It is the largest sigle authority carryig out flood defece work i Eglad. However, the Agecy is ot resposible for all flood defeces. Its powers to dissemiate flood warigs, to moitor water levels ad to build ad maitai defeces are oly permissive; ad these permissive powers are exercised almost exclusively o mai rivers. Permissive powers i respect of ordiary watercourses lie maily with local authorities ad Iteral Draiage Boards established i certai lowlyig areas. Private ladowers also have powers to act o their lad, subject to relevat cosets. 4 Our mai coclusios are: i) Up to 2 millio homes ad buildigs are i areas at risk of floodig. As see i late 2000, flood defeces ca reduce the risk or extet of damage; they caot prevet all floodig. Awareess of the risk ad actios ecessary before ad durig a flood - amog those resposible for ew developmets, for flood defece activity ad those who live or work i areas at risk - ca be the sigle most importat defece agaist the worst effects of floodig. 1executive summary
ii) The extet of joied-up workig required i all aspects of flood defece to protect those at risk represets a massive challege. The umber of bodies ivolved ad the fact that they have separate budgets rather tha a sigle flood protectio programme causes cofusio ad absorbs eergy ad resources that might otherwise be devoted to plaig ad implemetig flood defeces. iii) Some 300 millio is spet each year by all operatig authorities i buildig ad maitaiig ilad flood defeces. This requires careful prioritisatio of capital ad maiteace programmes based o a assessmet of risk. The results of a coditio survey of the Agecy's flood defece assets, completed i 2000, showed some 43 per cet of structures ad 36 per cet of liear barriers i Eglad are categorised as oly fair, poor or very poor. iv) I reviewig the lessos leared from floodig i late 2000, the Agecy ad the Miistry should cosider whether the divisio of resposibility for provisio of flood defeces ad the operatio ad permissive ature of powers icreased the risks of sufferig flood damage for some citizes. They also eed to do further work to explore whether the basis o which watercourses are curretly categorised betwee mai rivers ad o-mai (ordiary) rivers leads to iadequate ad icosistet levels of flood defece service across differet parts of the coutry. 5 By early 2000, our cocer about flood protectio had bee motivated by the sigificat amout of work still to be completed by the Agecy ad others i producig a comprehesive record of the coditio of flood defeces i Eglad, ad i strategic plaig of river ad water maagemet ad provisio of flood defece systems i the face of fiite resources. Our iterest was heighteed by the potetial threat from chages i raifall patters ad from buildig more homes i areas at risk from floodig. Ad so, at the time the floodig occurred i late 2000, we had already commeced a examiatio of the issues facig the Eviromet Agecy, the Miistry of Agriculture, Fisheries ad Food ad others i the provisio of flood warig ad defece. This report cotais our fidigs, coclusios ad recommedatios i respect of three mai areas: Flood warig ad public awareess Buildig ew defeces Performace ad maiteace of defeces 6 The Agecy's ow review followig the floods i late 2000 examies the causes ad effects of that floodig; the accuracy of weather forecastig; how the respose was maaged, icludig emergecy ad flood warig arragemets; ad lessos that ca be leared from floodig that tested the quality of defeces to or beyod their desig limit. Our report cosiders more geerally the actios take by the Agecy i recet years to protect the public from floodig, ad our recommedatios ad coclusios should cotribute to the Agecy's ad the Miistry's cosideratios about future actio i the wake of recet floodig. 2executive summary 7 I carryig out this examiatio we explored the scope for iteratioal comparisos. However, we foud that differeces i geography - such as terrai, climate ad amout of lad ad people at risk from floodig - made this difficult. The scale ad regularity of floodig i parts of Asia, for example, do ot bear compariso. Eve i Europe there are sigificat differeces i the size of mai rivers ad severity of floodig compared with Eglad. For example, although the low-lyig lad ad lad draiage i the Netherlads have some similarity with the geography of East Aglia, the rest of Eglad, icludig those regios affected by severe floodig i Easter 1998 or late 2000, is very differet. I terms of severity, we ote that i Polad, 54 people died ad over 160,000 people were evacuated i floods of 1997; i Italy i October ad November 2000 floodig caused more tha 30 deaths ad over 4,000 people to lose their homes Buildig temporary flood defeces at Barlby, Yorks - photo courtesy of the British Army
permaetly. O the other had, comparisos of the arragemets for admiisterig flood protectio show some similarities betwee coutries. These iclude the sharig of resposibilities for flood defece betwee cetral ad local govermet, ad icreasig attetio beig give towards seekig to pla flood defece, maagemet of water supplies ad evirometal cocers o the basis of river catchmet plas, such as i the Netherlads ad Frace. Our detailed fidigs 8 Flood forecastig, warig, protectio ad flood risk iformatio form the basis of risk maagemet by the idividual citize ad relevat authorities. Sice 1996 whe the Agecy was established, it has improved the quality ad coverage of flood risk mappig for local authorities, emergecy services ad others. As at mid 2000, the Agecy was still workig o some 70 per cet of the maps it had expected to produce to assist local authorities i decidig o plaig applicatios i areas at risk of floodig. However, flood risk maps coverig the whole of Eglad usig the best iformatio available to date were published i 1999 ad updated towards the ed of 2000. 9 I areas where a flood warig facility exists, the Agecy has, o behalf of flood defece committees, icreased the percetage of people who receive at least two hours otice of floodig from 13 per cet i the early 1990s to 65 per cet i 1998 ad has targets to icrease this further to 80 per cet over the ext 10 years. The Agecy cotiues to carry out flood awareess campaigs o behalf of flood defece committees, to esure the public recogises the risks ad takes appropriate actio. Research by the Agecy (which predated floodig across may parts of Eglad i October ad November 2000) showed that 19 out of 20 people i flood risk areas did ot take the possibility of floodig seriously. 10 The orgaisatioal arragemets for the provisio ad fudig of flood defece are ackowledged to be very complex ad were already uder review by those resposible prior to floodig i late 2000. Resposibility spas the Miistry, the Agecy, all local authorities ad district coucils, 9 Regioal ad 11 Local Flood Defece Committees, ad 235 Iteral Draiage Boards. While complex, these arragemets do have some beefits i terms of idetifyig ad attemptig to address local eeds ad priorities for flood defece. 11 The Miistry estimates that existig defeces reduce the aual cost of damage as a result of floodig by over 2 billio. To that extet, therefore, the aual ivestmet by operatig authorities of some 400 millio o flood defeces, more tha half of which is maaged by the Agecy, represets good value for moey. However, eve before the floods i late 2000, there was pressure to build more defeces, to maitai existig defeces i good coditio, to take more accout of evirometal issues ad of the chages which ca occur i flood risk areas as a result of ew developmet. We suggest there are a umber of areas, such as strategic plaig of flood protectio, bechmarkig ad ecoomic appraisal of maiteace, where more progress is eeded to ehace the effective allocatio of resources i the loger term. 12 The coditio survey of the Agecy's flood defeces completed i October 2000 showed sigificat variatios across regios. I the North East regio, for example, some 85 per cet of liear barriers were assessed as fair, poor or very poor, ad the Midlads ad South West regios had aroud 54 per cet of their liear defeces i these categories. These cotrast with the North West ad Thames regios which had, respectively, 84 per cet ad 74 per cet of their liear defeces assessed as i good or very good coditio. The umber of structures categorised as fair, poor or very poor raged from 18 per cet i the North West regio to 50 per cet i the Souther regio. The Agecy sees this as the result of differet policies ad practices from idividual flood defece 3executive summary
committees, the cumulative effect of local fudig decisios by them, ad the availability of grat-aid. Agecy staff offer advice to Flood Defece Committees but they may or may ot accept such advice. Work by the Agecy to aalyse the results of a similar survey of flood defece assets built ad maitaied by other public bodies must be completed urgetly so that remedial actio ca be idetified ad prioritised. Our specific recommedatios O flood warig 13 The Miistry estimates that eight per cet (aroud 10,000 square kilometres) of lad area i Eglad is at risk from floodig from rivers, tidal rivers ad estuaries. The Agecy has i recet years made progress i preparig priority area flood risk maps to assist local plaig authorities but of the 821 maps i its programme oly 200 had bee produced at Jue 2000, with 376 i progress ad a further 245 ot started. The origial programme commeced i 1995. The Agecy also seeks to provide map based iformatio o idicative flood risk which is iteded to iform the emergecy services, via local authorities, ad the public, about areas at risk. These two sets of maps have ow bee merged ad made available o CD-ROMs ad the Agecy's website. It is ot clear whether all users fully uderstad the purpose ad cotets of these maps, or are satisfied with their quality (paragraphs 2.4-2.14). We recommed: The Agecy ad the Miistry should work with the Departmet of the Eviromet, Trasport ad the Regios, ad the Local Govermet Associatio to develop a strategy for the way ahead for priority area iformatio o the maps. This is ecessary to esure that the appropriate iformatio is available to local authorities i applyig ew guidace o buildig developmet i areas at risk, which is beig revised i early 2001. I the light of this, the Agecy should review progress by its regioal offices i producig this iformatio, ad set targets for its completio. For example, i Souther Regio - oe of the first areas to be hard hit by floodig i late 2000 - oly oe out of the 40 maps plaed had bee completed. The Agecy should establish a programme for cosultig all groups of users of the maps to esure their purpose is clearly uderstood ad the maps are meetig their iteded purposes. The feedback obtaied ca be used to improve ay maps still to be produced, ad be take ito accout whe existig maps are due for revisio. The preparatio ad maiteace of maps is expesive, ad has bee largely fuded through local authorities by Regioal Flood Defece Committees. It would seem appropriate for developers ad other beeficiaries of the maps to cotribute towards their cost, especially whe such users require more iformatio o the risk of floodig i specific locatios. The Agecy has suggested that i certai circumstaces the ous should be o developers to provide detailed assessmets of risk. 4executive summary Chiook trasport helicopter droppig sadbags - photo courtesy of the British Army 14 Sice Easter 1998 whe floodig i Eglad revealed scope for improvemet, the Agecy has made sigificat progress i developig a strategy for flood warig, i establishig a atioal cetre to idetify ad promote best practice, ad i developig the techiques for dissemiatig flood warigs. The most effective warig mechaism ca vary depedig o, for example, the extet of urbaisatio ad the time of day whe floodig is immiet. The Agecy aims to provide oe direct ad oe idirect method of dissemiatig flood warigs to the areas for which it offers a service. Less tha five per cet of the 1.5 millio properties at specific risk are coected to automated voice messagig, which provides oe method of direct warig via telephoe or fax whe floodig may occur. The highest percetage, 16.4, is i Souther regio where the service was
piloted ad was used extesively durig floods i October 2000. This compares with oly 1.3 per cet i the North East. Other direct methods iclude the use of locally recruited flood wardes. Sires ad vas with loudhailers ca augmet radio ad televisio bulletis ad have beefits too as idirect methods (paragraphs 2.15 to 2.26). We recommed: The Agecy, through the flood defece committees, should examie the reasos for the variatios betwee regios i the umber of properties i areas at risk which have access to differet direct warig methods, especially automated voice messagig. They should cosider the effectiveess of the methods ad whether a cosistet service exists across the coutry. Experieces from the floods i late 2000 may prove useful i this respect. 15 The reasos for curret classificatios of watercourses as mai rivers or ordiary watercourses are largely historical. For example, the North West regio has the secod highest legth of watercourses classified as mai river after Aglia regio, although it is oe of the smaller regios i terms of size ad properties at risk. The desigatio of a stretch of water ca have importat implicatios for the level of flood warig ad defece services, ad existig classificatios may lead to icosistecies i the stadard of service provided (paragraphs 2.27 to 2.35). We recommed: The Agecy should cosider, i cojuctio with other operatig bodies, whether clearer priciples for classifyig watercourses are eeded to provide a more balaced approach to service provisio across regios. The Miistry would also eed to be ivolved i settig a framework for cosideratio of these issues. The icidets of floodig i October ad November 2000 should be examied to determie whether the lack of clear criteria for classifyig watercourses as mai or ordiary impacts o the overall prioritisatio of flood defece measures across the coutry, ad o the quality of service to the public. O buildig ew defeces 16 Guidace issued by the Miistry i 1993 stresses the importace of a strategic approach to plaig river ad water maagemet, which cosiders the impact of buildig flood defeces ad the iterrelatioship betwee watercourses, lad use ad developmet by river catchmet. The preparatio of strategic river catchmet plas would assist i balacig the differig iterests of evirometal groups, users of the lad ad others, ad help create a more joied-up approach betwee relevat orgaisatios at local ad regioal levels. However, progress towards comprehesive river catchmet plaig of this sort is a log-term commitmet. I the four years of the Agecy's existece, it has focused first o strategies for flood warig ad coastal shorelies, i lie with the Miistry's priorities. The first versios of these shorelie maagemet plas are ow i place. The floodig of late 2000 has reiforced the eed for catchmet plaig (paragraphs 3.3 to 3.10). Additioal fudig aouced by the Govermet i November icludes provisio for developmet of the methodology ad pilotig of catchmet flood maagemet plas. We recommed: The Agecy should seek the agreemet of flood defece committees to make progress with the proposed catchmet flood maagemet plas to improve the idetificatio ad prioritisatio of the eed for flood defeces. Preparatio of such plas requires joied-up workig betwee those resposible for plaig, buildig ad maitaiig defeces. Cosistet with its supervisory duty, the Agecy should cosult with them ad establish a programme ad timescales for its regioal offices to develop these plas. 5executive summary
17 O a scheme by scheme basis the Miistry has established a system for prioritisig projects to assist i effective allocatio of the overall fuds available. The Agecy ad the Miistry also use beefit:cost aalysis to help them choose the most cost-effective optio for providig flood defeces, ad they take accout of evirometal factors (paragraphs 3.11 to 3.17, Appedix 5). We recommed: The Miistry's follow up to its recet cosultatio exercise o the preset scorig system for rakig idividual projects should cosider whether relative affluece or other local factors iappropriately ifluece prioritisatio of projects. The beefit:cost appraisal process should be stregtheed by reviews of outtur costs of all elemets of the project after the project is complete. This would better iform the process of assessig likely costs at the iitial ad tederig stages of a scheme. 18 For the 168 ew flood defece schemes betwee 1996 ad 1999, for which we compared outtur costs with origial cotract price, the overall aggregate cost overrus were 7.6 per cet. However, larger projects were the most likely to overru ad by a sigificat amout (13 per cet o schemes over 500,000). Uforesee groud coditios ad extra works idetified by the cotractor were the most commo cotributig factors i cost overrus i the past. This suggested to us that scheme desig could be improved, for example, by more thorough site ivestigatio procedures. The Agecy has adopted a ew policy for the amout ivested i such ivestigatios, based o a assessmet of risk ad experiece from past projects. The Agecy has also moderised its approach to maagig the risks ivolved i costructio cotracts, i lie with costructio idustry iitiatives ad best practice, for example by the use of target cost cotracts ad arragemets for sharig risk with cotractors. The Agecy moitors the performace of all costructio cotracts by bechmarkig ad the use of performace idicators measurig the delivery of projects to time, cost ad quality criteria (paragraphs 3.18 to 3.25). We recommed: The Agecy should moitor the applicatio ad impact of its recet iitiatives, to esure best practice i procuremet ad project maagemet is applied across its regios, ad to dissemiate lessos from reviews of completed schemes to help esure the best use of resources. O the performace ad maiteace of defeces 6executive summary 19 The quality of flood defeces is difficult to assess as they protect agaist the risk of relatively severe ad uusual weather coditios. May will ot have bee tested by the extet of floodig they were desiged to withstad or reduce. Posticidet reviews of lesser evets demostrate that defeces stad up to their tasks ad that floodig is most ofte the result of extreme evets rather tha failures i defeces. Evets i late 2000 have highlighted that defeces geerally reduce rather tha elimiate extreme floodig, which reiforces the importace of public awareess of livig i areas of risk. Util 2000, there had bee o atioal record of idividual icidets of floodig. Sice floods i Summer 2000 i the North East of Eglad, the format ad cotet of the lessos leared report prepared for those icidets have bee adopted as the best practice stadard for use by all Regios. These reports will ow be shared atioally via the Regioal Flood Defece Maagers Group (paragraphs 4.2 to 4.9). We recommed: The Agecy eeded to collect more iformatio atioally o the success of schemes i copig with lesser flood icidets. The reports for this purpose itroduced i 2000 should be used to help i evaluatig the effectiveess of flood defeces ad to esure that lessos arisig ad good practice are dissemiated across the Agecy's regios ad also to other operatig bodies such as local authorities.
20 The Agecy has bee carryig out visual surveys o the coditio of flood defeces, i part to idicate where maiteace work, ad i some cases capital work, is required. For the first time there will be a cetral record of the locatio ad coditio of all flood defeces, whether the resposibility of the Agecy or other operatig authorities. The surveys of mai river defeces have revealed that the coditio of aroud 40 per cet of the Agecy's flood defece assets is fair, poor or very poor ad givig cause for cocer. The Agecy has experieced difficulties i obtaiig the assistace of up to 135 local authorities i completig surveys of o-mai river defeces. 27 of these were assessed by the Agecy as havig sigificat legths of critical ordiary watercourses i their area (paragraphs 4.10 to 4.17). We recommed: The Agecy's regioal maiteace ad capital programmes submitted to flood defece committees for approval are beig reviewed to take accout of the results of the surveys of Agecy assets. Where defeces are still iteded to serve some useful purpose, work should be put i had o those 400 structures ad 165 kilometres of flood defeces which have completely failed. The aalysis of the coditio ratigs for other flood authorities' assets should be completed quickly, particularly i view of the severe floodig i late 2000 ad of the results from the survey of the Agecy's ow flood defeces. Additioally, the Agecy should cofirm the accuracy of its ow coditio survey i those cases where defeces were tested i the recet floodig. The Agecy should moitor cetrally progress by its regios, flood defece committees ad by local authorities ad other operatig bodies. The aim would be to ecourage the udertakig of appropriate actio, maiteace ad other works with the prospect i the log term of appropriate ad more broadly cosistet stadards of flood protectio across the coutry, takig accout of ecoomic beefits. Variatios betwee regios i the coditio of assets should be ivestigated by the Agecy, with a view to establishig whether the criteria for assessmet have bee applied cosistetly, ad ultimately with the aim of developig a strategy with local authorities ad others for improvig the coditio of defeces i the poorer rated regios. 21 The Agecy employs a workforce of 1,570 across Eglad to provide a emergecy respose to flood evets. As flood emergecies occur ifrequetly, the Agecy seeks to employ these staff throughout the year o its maiteace programmes. Reviews commissioed by the Agecy suggest that the i-house workforce provides a effective emergecy respose ad carries out a high stadard of maiteace work (paragraphs 4.18 to 4.35). We recommed: The Agecy should moitor the proportio of time spet by its i-house staff o emergecy respose across areas ad over time. Such data might assist the Agecy i cofirmig whether the eed for resources is matched to maiteace requiremets ad whether there is scope for more efficiet use of resources. Breached flood defeces at Gowdall, Yorks - photo courtesy of the Eviromet Agecy I oe regio where maiteace or other work was isufficiet to keep the i-house staff usefully employed, they were awarded, without competitio, a cotract to build a ew defece estimated to cost 1.2 millio. The cost of the work overra by 74 per cet. The Agecy has assessed the lessos arisig from this cotract ad is implemetig a ew approach across the regios. The Agecy should esure full compliace with this ew policy ad approach. 7executive summary
The Agecy should cosider establishig commo stadards ad best practice i maiteace to be applied across regios ad seek the agreemet of flood defece committees to these. It should cosider the eed for closer moitorig by its regioal offices ad headquarters to esure maiteace is efficiet ad targeted to the stadards of service required. Floodig i late 2000: ad the way forward 22 Prior to flood evets of late 2000 the Agecy had asked us to idicate whether future actios we idetified i our report were of primary or secodary sigificace. Relative priorities ad resource implicatios are maily matters for those resposible for deliverig services ad for their customers. I the case of flood defeces, the Agecy has to secure approval from flood defece committees to provide fudig ad agree priorities. Priorities will also deped o the outcome of the reviews by the Agecy ad others of fudig ad orgaisatioal matters already uderway i 2000 ad the review of lessos from the floodig i late 2000. Of our mai fidigs listed above, we regard the followig as high priority, although it will be for flood defece committees, with the advice of the Agecy, to determie the speed of progress. The developmet of strategic plas for all river catchmets is of pressig importace. Whilst these will take several years to complete, the settig ad agreemet of targets for the Agecy's regios to produce such plas ad the close moitorig of progress is a priority. These plas are fudametal to the log-term upgradig of flood defeces to take accout of local coditios, existig risks ad defeces, ad the impact of chages i sea level, climate ad raifall. The Agecy's mappig of areas at risk to meet local plaig authority eeds has bee uderway for some years ow. The recet floods have raised cocers that further or iappropriate developmet i flood plais will lead to more frequet ad extesive floodig. I view of this, ad ew guidace to local authorities o this matter which is to be issued i early 2001, completig ad modifyig these maps must be a high priority. Urget actio is eeded i respose to the coditio surveys of flood defeces. Util the eed for remedial work is clarified ad advice give to local authorities ad others i respect of their assets, defeces i areas of risk may ot provide the level of safety the Agecy ad residets believe. Moitorig progress i improvig the coditio of defeces, whether belogig to the Agecy, a local authority or a Iteral Draiage Board, will be a priority for the Agecy. Durig the course of our work, the Agecy had already started work o bechmarkig ad ecoomic evaluatio of maiteace. This too is importat because of its cotributio to the quality of flood defeces ad the possible scope for idetifyig savigs ad releasig resources for other flood defece work. 8executive summary