Written - New European Funding for Flood and Coastal Risk Management in Wales

In December 2008 you will recall my announcement regarding our success in securing an additional £30m of European Convergence funding to invest in flood and coastal erosion risk measures within eligible local authority areas.  That funding will support a £65 million strategic programme of improvement work to be carried out over the next six years.

This additional funding will be match funded primarily from the national flood and coastal risk management budgets supplemented by contributions from local authorities and others together with the additional £8 million, available over the next two years, allocated from the Assembly Government’s Strategic Capital Investment Fund. 

These additional funds will be awarded to schemes that support a broad approach to flood risk management.  The six-year programme will see the construction of both new and improved flood and coastal defences and will also implement a range of other flood risk management measures such as sustainable urban drainage systems, raising awareness of the risk of flooding and building resilience in communities prone to flooding.

Following work carried out by the Convergence Funding Programme Board to gather more detailed information on those schemes considered eligible for inclusion within our strategic programme, I am now pleased to announce schemes which have been approved for inclusion in the first tranche of the Flood and Coastal Risk Management Strategic Programme.

My officials will be working closely with officers from local authorities, the Environment Agency and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water who are leading in delivering individual schemes to develop detailed project plans and to assist with the process of securing the required match funding. 

In total, the first tranche of schemes will draw down £20m of the available £30m Convergence Programme funding allocated to flood and coastal risk management activities in Wales. The schemes included are listed in Annex 1.

My officials will be working closely with the promoting authorities to support the delivery of each of the projects that form part of this ambitious programme of flood risk investment.

The Welsh Assembly Government is also preparing a strategic bid for further European funding from the Competitiveness Programme which, if successful, will benefit flood and coastal risk management schemes in those local authority areas which are ineligible for convergence funding.