The new Rural Flood Resilience Partnership has been launched to help farmers and rural communities adapt to floods, flood risks and coastal erosion.
The partnership involves six organisations, namely: Action with Communities in Rural England; the Association of Drainage Authorities; the Country Land and Business Association; the Environment Agency; the National Farmers Union (NFU) and Natural England.
The aim of the partnership is to support rural flood resilience and help farmers and rural communities adapt to the impacts of climate change, particularly flooding.
The Rural Flood Resilience Partnership has been established to improve collaboration, deepen understanding of vulnerabilities, and support rural communities and agricultural businesses in building their resilience to present and future flood risks and coastal erosion.
As well as the partnership itself being launched today (Monday, September 23), its work plan covering 2024-2026 has also been launched.
The plan will see the partners, and a wide range of projects, working together to improve their evidence base, and will draw on this to co-develop solutions.
The work plan sets out 21 actions supporting seven strategic outcomes.
The plan’s outcomes will support the aims of: developing the evidence base behind decision-making to increase resilience; ensuring communities, farmers and landowners have access to quality advice and support; and engaging rural communities in flood resilience.
Commenting on the new partnership and its work plan for the next two years, NFU vice-president Rachel Hallos said: “The NFU is pleased to be involved in this new partnership and hope it will enable farmers and rural communities to strengthen the resilience of their homes and businesses by providing practical solutions based on tangible evidence to some of the challenges they face in the event of flooding.
“Farmers are on the frontline of climate change, our biggest challenge. The extreme weather this brings is one of the main threats to UK food security and more severe storms, devastating floods, and increased periods of little or no rain are all impacting our ability to produce food,” Hallos added.
She said that the NFU is waiting on details of support for farmers who were impacted by flooding earlier this year.
“The country has just experienced its wettest 18 months since records began in 1836 which left many thousands of acres of productive farmland under water.
“There are still many farm businesses in dire need of support, and we are awaiting details of how the Farming Recovery Fund can help those businesses recover from the impacts of the devastating flooding and saturated ground,” the NFU vice-president added.
Caroline Douglass, executive director for flood and coastal risk management at the Environment Agency, said: “While the Environment Agency continues to work to strengthen rural flood resilience, no single organisation can tackle these challenges in isolation. This partnership provides the opportunity to accomplish more than any one organisation can manage alone.
“The new Rural Flood Resilience Partnership will help farmers, land managers and rural communities become more resilient to the impacts of climate change while retaining the vital role of managing land and producing sustainable food,” Douglass added.
