£21million worth of grants to help councils protect and support their own community when managing flood risk has been confirmed by Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman.

The funds will fully cover the costs for local authorities of putting into place and carrying out  new responsibilities under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, such as flood mapping, producing risk management plans and supporting community flood awareness groups.

The funds have been allocated based on the individual risk that each local authority has. Funding for 2011/12 will total £21 million rising to £36million for 2012/13 and subsequent years of this Spending Review period.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:

“This money will go a long way to help local flood authorities identify and deal with the risk of flooding in their own communities, Each local authority can decide where the money will be of most use – it could be used to pay members of staff, to come up with plans of dealing with surface water flooding or for generally work with the public on how best to deal with flooding.”

Each lead local flood authority is set to receive at least £110,000.

Notes to editors:

1. Funding will be allocated to Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs). LLFAs are established under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. LLFAs are responsible for local flood risk management, including surface water.
2. The money will be allocated as Area Based Grant. Area Based Grant is allocated direct to each local authority. Local authorities will have complete flexibility to spend the additional funding as they see fit.
3. Amounts are allocated according to the risk each LLFA is expected to need to manage.
4. Funding is provided as part of the minimum of £2.1 billion the Government expects to spend on flood and coastal erosion risk management by 2015. Local authorities also receive funding under formula grant arrangements administered by Communities and Local Government. This year, we expect local authorities to spend about £100million on flood and coastal erosion risk management supported through formula grant arrangements.
5. The funding will fully support LLFAs in developing local flood risk management strategies; surface water management plans and priority actions; mapping, running oversight and scrutiny committees; and administering consents for private changes to ordinary watercourses.

The amount allocated to each local authority is listed below: