Revealed: a third of England’s vital flood defences are in private hands

Some defences are at risk of failure but private owners cannot be forced to make upgrades

• Fixing flood defences: All we can do is ask'

A third of England's most important flood defences are in private hands, an investigation has found, with more than 1,000 found to be in a poor state and some at risk of complete performance failure".

Private owners cannot be forced to make upgrades to the defences, which can involve bills of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The government admits it can only encourage" third-party owners to do maintainance, though the Environment Agency can carry out emergency repairs if there is a risk to people, property or environment, and try to bill the freeholders afterwards.