Flood Defence

HC Deb 02 May 2002 vol 384 c947W

Mr. Liddell-Grainger

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what future plans there are to increase funding to the Environment Agency for flood defence. [53450]

Mr. Morley

This Department provides grant (and supplementary credit approvals to local authorities) to the Environment Agency, local authorities and internal drainage boards for flood and coastal defence capital works in England. The total provision available, and the Environment Agency's share of it, is increasing as shown in the table:

£ million
	2001–02 Provisional outturn	2002–03 Allocation	2003–04 Provision
Total	91.0	106.0	114.0
Of which:
Environment Agency	61.5	65.0	1—
1 Not yet allocated

The provision available for 2003–04 will be allocated to authorities later this year.

The other main source of funding for the Environment Agency are levies paid by local authorities. The figures are as follows:

£ million
2001–02	233.7
2002–03	247.8
2003–04	1—
1 To be decided in early 2003

Funding levels for future years will be considered in this year's spending review.