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<p>In recent years, investment in defences has been effective at better protecting
properties and reducing the impacts of flooding on people’s lives and livelihoods.
We have seen progressively fewer properties flooded following recent incidents, avoiding
more damages to people, businesses, landowners and infrastructure than might otherwise
have been. In England, during the winter 2019/20 approximately 4,600 properties were
sadly flooded while 128,000 properties were better protected from flooding.</p><p>
</p><p>In the last 12 months, the Environment Agency (EA) has completed around 20,000
inspections of flood assets that were damaged in the winter 2019/20 floods. The EA
has a prioritised programme of repairs based on risk to lives and livelihoods underway.
All of the flood defences damaged last year have either been repaired or have contingency
plans in place to reduce the risk to their communities this winter.</p><p> </p><p>Throughout
the year, the EA has also continued to build and maintain flood risk management assets.
The EA is on track to better protect 300,000 properties from flooding and coastal
erosion between 2015 and 2021. Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, the EA worked
with other Risk Management Authorities to complete approximately 176 flood and coastal
erosion risk management schemes which helped better protect approximately 45,400 homes
from flooding and 3,200 homes from coastal erosion. The EA is working through the
River Severn Partnership to address long-term resilience.</p><p> </p><p>During the
flooding at the end of December 2020, 692 metres of demountable defences were erected
across the country, 672m of which were in the West Midlands. 723 metres of temporary
barriers were erected, 423 metres of which were in the West Midlands. This meant that
over 9,300 properties were protected from flooding, with over 3,700 being in the West
Midlands. The majority of these were within the River Severn catchment.</p><p> </p><p>The
EA has continued to engage virtually with communities at risk of flooding during the
Coronavirus pandemic, adapting its approach by sharing scheme updates and consulting
with local residents in a safe way.</p><p> </p><p>The EA’s autumn Flood Action Campaign
helped ensure that communities are better prepared and know how to check their flood
risk with key messages around a three-point plan to PREPARE, ACT, SURVIVE. Over 1.4
million properties are signed up to receive free flood warnings.</p><p> </p><p>Following
the flooding in winter 2019/20 and again in February 2020 following storms Ciara and
Dennis, the Government announced Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grants of
up to £5,000 in affected areas to help eligible homes, charities and businesses become
more flood resilient. The repair grants apply to those affected in district or unitary
authorities that have 25 or more severely flooded properties.</p><p> </p><p>The most
recent figures (held by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government)
show that 18 district or unitary councils with over 2300 properties are eligible in
England for the November 2019 PFR repair scheme. Over 29 districts or unitary councils
(including Shropshire Council, which includes Shrewsbury) with over 5000 properties
are eligible in England for the February 2020 PFR repair scheme.</p><p> </p><p>In
recognition of the challenges created by the Coronavirus pandemic, both the 2019 and
2020 schemes have been extended by nine months to give homeowners and businesses more
time to carry out repairs and local authorities a greater period to process the grants.</p><p>
</p><p>Local authorities on the November scheme now have until 31 December 2021 to
recover their costs while local authorities on the February scheme have until 1 July
2022.</p>
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