New wave of flood funding for English towns

Another £5m will be up for grabs for local authorities bidding for funding on specific flood prevention projects.

A further £1m will be spent on making flood risk management training and data available to local authorities.

Surface water flooding occurs when the amount of water flowing over asphalted areas overwhelms the drainage system.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: “Local authorities have a crucial role to play in tackling flooding and it’s vital that they have the information, resources and skills they need.

“That’s why we’ve provided this money and we want to make sure it gets to where it’s most needed and where it can make the biggest difference – especially as we know that climate change will cause increased severe rainfall in future and bring with it an increased risk of surface water flooding.”

The 77 local authorities to receive funding are those where the consequences of surface water flooding are expected to be the most damaging and have been identified from new studies which model the effects of very severe rainfall.

Such storms can occur anywhere and are expected to become more frequent in the future with climate change.

Sam Bond