Chancellor announces spending on flooding will be doubled

Extra 2.6bn is for capital projects, with no new funds for maintaining existing defences

Expenditure on flooding will be doubled, the chancellor has announced in the budget, but analysis has revealed the figure is less generous than it seems. Spending will be increased to 5.2bn for the period from 2015 to 2021, but the extra 2.6bn that includes will be for capital projects only, with no extra funds for maintenance.

In the four years from 2015-16 to 2018-19, spending on flood defences was just over 3bn, and a further 815m was allocated for the financial year about to end. That comes to 3.9bn, of which about 1.3bn went on the vital maintenance of existing flood defences and other routine tasks.