Storm Desmond 10 years on: £600m+ invested in reducing flood risk across Cumbria and Lancashire since 2015

In the region, £617.5m has been invested in the programme for reducing flood and coastal erosion risk between 2015 and 2026 (financial year end)

The spending is across 599 Environment Agency and local authority projects, with 41,406 properties better protected.

The Environment Agency and its partners have put £600m worth of investment into reducing flood risk across Cumbria and Lancashire in the last decade.

Richard Knight, Environment Agency Flood Risk Manager, said: "Protecting communities from flooding is our top priority, and we are prepared to take action in Cumbria and Lancashire this winter.

“Climate change means extreme weather events are happening more frequently – it was only in mid-November that heavy rain saw some properties flooding again in Cumbria.

"Despite our best efforts we can’t protect everybody from flooding, but more than £600m has been invested in new flood defences across Cumbria and Lancashire since Storm Desmond.

"We have a strong track record of working together with communities in the counties to help people understand their risks and get better prepared – it is essential we all do our part by checking our flood risk and getting flood warnings at Gov.uk."

In the days and months that followed Storm Desmond, Environment Agency teams worked tirelessly alongside partners and communities to respond, rebuild, and learn.

From emergency response and supporting those affected, through to repairing assets, restoring defences, improving flood-warning systems, and embedding new ways of working, this was one of the most significant recovery efforts in the Environment Agency’s history.

We are already seeing the impacts of climate change in the UK and around the world, which is why urgent action is needed to adapt the impacts of climate emergency at the same time as reducing emissions.

The Environment Agency is currently delivering the government’s flood and coastal risk management investment programme of flood and coastal defences, investing £2.65billion over 2024/5 and 2025/6 to scale up national resilience through building new, and improving existing, flood defences.

In Cumbria and Lancashire, major flood risk management schemes are completed, near completion, or currently under way, with many others also progressing across the area to help better protect more than 40,000 homes and businesses.

In addition to traditional flood defences, the Environment Agency is advancing Natural Flood Management (NFM) to help reduce flood risk. Since Storm Desmond in Cumbria and Lancashire, more than £5m has been invested in NFM, enhancing protection for more than 25 at-risk communities.

This work continues through support for the Cumbria Innovative Flood Resilience Project (CiFR) and local initiatives funded by the recent £25m national NFM programme.

To understand the risk of flooding and to be better prepared, people can:

• Get flood warnings by phone, text or email: https://www.gov.uk/get-flood-warnings
• Check your long-term flood risk. You can use this free service to find out the long-term flood risk for an area in England, the possible causes of flooding, and how to manage flood risk: https://www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk
• Take steps to protect yourself from future flooding – including storing important documents in a secure, waterproof location, taking rugs and small furniture upstairs, checking how to turn off your electricity and water, preparing a flood kit: https://www.gov.uk/prepare-for-flooding