Yorkshire drought in cash for flood defences

The stark divide is illustrated by a three-to-one bias in the money our region receives.

This year Yorkshire – one of the worst-hit areas in the summer floods – only received £35m for defences and the North-East a further £10m. London received £70m and Anglia £81m.

Now, as the Environment Agency in Yorkshire competes for funding for next year, we can reveal the definitive list of schemes delayed, underfunded, rejected and scrapped due to a lack of cash for the region.

Some defences have even had to be scrapped because the money has had to be diverted to repairs following June's floods – and there is no extra emergency Government money.

Across north, south, east and west, flood defence schemes have been deemed important enough by Environment Agency officials for funding but have failed the final hurdle – the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) central committee.

What's more, the Yorkshire Post reveals today that communities along Yorkshire's East Coast have just months to save their sea defences with the agency about to compile a register of which communities it can no longer afford to protect.

As it stands, of the 2,000km (1,243 miles) of main rivers running through Yorkshire, only 1,280km (795 miles) have any protection. About five per cent of the defences in place are categorised as poor or very poor.

That leaves 325,200 homes at risk from flooding from rivers or sea, with about £8.3bn of assets at risk from river flooding, along with £9.6bn from tidal flooding and £1.3bn from coastal erosion in the north-east region.

A leading flood defence expert now estimates it would cost between just £500m and £900m to ensure Yorkshire was fully protected from river flooding. Damage from June's flood alone is estimated to be £2bn.

Fighting for money are huge, £100m schemes such as that for Leeds – vital for protecting the economic powerhouse of the region – which have in the past been shelved And cities such as Sheffield, York, Doncaster and Wakefield – all devastated by floods – have all been told to wait until the end of the decade before seeing any chance of funding. Towns like Ripon and Pickering that have suffered the devastation of flooding many times before are still deemed unimportant enough for a Government grant.

The unfair funding formula which focuses on the number of people living in an area means that rural residents will always miss out. Expert Andrew Waller, a key player on the agency's Regional Flood Defence Committee, said: "The agency can only do so much work with the resources it is given. If we want to build the new schemes we need to, the Government has to give us more money.

"As it stands what they do give us will have to pay for the damage sustained in the summer.

"Investing in decent flood defences for the region makes great economic sense. It will cost a lot less then having to clean up messes like what we saw this summer time and time again."

The Government's own Foresight report from 2005 says Yorkshire will see "greater than average increases in risk" over the coming years.

It says that the number of people at risk in Yorkshire could increase to 1.2 million, and annual average damage may increase to more than £1.1bn – and that was before events of this summer.

Vale of York MP and Conservative shadow floods minister Anne McIntosh said: "How is it we're the second-highest risk area for flooding in England and yet we're the most chronically underfunded?

"I put this to the Environment and Local Government Ministers this week and all they said was they would look into it. They should have looked into it and done something about it a long time ago."

Kelly Ostler, spokesman for the Association of British Insurers, said that an ABI study, published in November 2006, showed that £8bn needed to be invested over the next 25 years on East Coast defences alone.

Since taking charge of Defra during the June crisis, Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn has made it clear that he wants to find more money for flood defences – and quickly secured a commitment from the Treasury that spending would increase from £600m to £800m a year by 2011.

A Defra spokesman said: "It is not how much the Government doesn't spend on flood management, it is how much they do spend. For every £1 the Government spends means a £6 benefit. These are good results."