The cost of preventing major flooding caused by extreme weather and excessive rainfall is deepening the financial crisis for councils in low-lying England, ministers have warned.
Communities in the east of the country say they are being forced to cut routine services like garbage collection because of dramatic and unsustainable increases in payments they have to make to fund pumping stations used to protect areas from flooding.
Some districts currently spend up to a fifth of their annual net budget on annual wastewater taxes and say costs have risen an average of 30 percent over the past two years due to increased rainfall and rising energy bills, making them financially unsustainable.
The impact on councils has been hardest in areas hit by a series of disasters, such as Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. Severe storm Devastating floods have occurred in recent months, destroying thousands of homes and businesses.
Paul Redgate, deputy leader of South Holland District Council in Lincolnshire, said it would be difficult for councils to cover the rising cost of wastewater tax but they could not cut funding for pumping stations. “To say it’s difficult is an understatement,” he said.
Innes Thomson, Chief Executive Officer, Association of Drainage AuthoritiesThe body representing pumping stations across the UK said local authorities were being left “caught in the middle” because their current funding system was unable to meet the growing demands on waterway drainage networks.
“Climate change is having an effect here too. If we shut down the pumps, all the low-lying land between the North Sea and Peterborough would be flooded,” he added.
There are 112 Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) in England, operating 625 pumping stations and maintaining 1,400 miles (22,000 km) of waterways. An estimated 600,000 people live or work in areas protected by IDBs. The IDBs are not involved in funding large-scale flood defence projects.
Pumping stations that previously operated for only three months a year are now operating for seven months due to excess rainfall, putting a great strain on ageing machinery. They have also incurred huge electricity bills over the past two years, with some pumping stations seeing electricity rates increase by 500 percent.
St Germans, Norfolk pumping station Storm Henk In January, a month’s worth of rain fell in four days. Two Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water Every minute.
In recent years, the cost of maintaining the pumping stations and waterways has mainly been borne by local government taxpayers, but climate change and skyrocketing energy costs mean local taxes are no longer enough to meet demand. Local authorities say the current annual cost of £50 million should be covered by central government.
Some city governments in flood-prone areas say the levy is soaking up most of the money they could raise each year from local council tax hikes, which are capped at 2.99 percent. Some communities cannot cover the levy with local council tax revenues and are being forced to make up the shortfall by cutting services.
Boston Borough Council in Lincolnshire said it was spending 22% of its net budget on drainage tax, which has risen by £800,000 (40%) over the past three years. Neighbouring East Lindsey District Council’s drainage tax has risen by nearly £1.37 million this year – three times the income it raised from council tax increases.
Sam Chapman-Allen, chairman of the District Councils Network, said: “Only by properly funding flood defences can we maintain defences across vast swathes of the country and avoid catastrophic flooding which threatens lives and livelihoods.”
“The IDB has little choice but to pass on the increased costs to local governments, who in turn have no choice but to make further cuts to local services that are essential to supporting communities and growing local economies,” he added.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Protecting communities across the country from flooding is an absolute priority for this Government, which is why we are setting up a Flood Resilience Taskforce to accelerate the implementation of flood defences, drainage systems and natural flood management plans.”
“The Government will also take steps to build more high quality, well-designed and sustainable homes, creating places that are more resilient to climate change and help nature recover.”
