Internal Drainage Boards: Finance
(asked on 8th April 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release £16 million boost to improve flood protection for farmers and rural communities, published on 16 March 2025, what the additional funding will be for each internal drainage board.
Answered by
Emma Hardy
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Internal Draining Board (IDB) Storm Recovery and Asset Improvement fund was established to help IDBs recover from flooding events over winter 2023/24 and to modernise their infrastructure.
On 31 March, the Government announced an additional £16 million to bolster the fund, bringing the total to £91 million.
The whole fund will provide improved flood protection benefits to over 400,000 hectares of agricultural land and 91,000 homes and businesses.
The additional £16 million will be allocated to previously submitted and assessed bids. The funding will support an additional 20 projects, across 18 different IDBs. Announcements of the specific amounts will be made in due course.