Fens2100+

Overview

Fens 2100+ is a new programme of work, launched in 2023 to enable the Fens to adapt to the challenges of climate change both now and into the future. 

This programme will develop a Fens-wide flood resilience investment strategy that achieves long-term value for money and generates regional and national benefits.


It’s being developed with, and for, Flood Risk Management Authorities so they can plan for the next 20-25 years of flood risk management. This investment strategy will be completed in 2025.  
                                               

The value of the Fens 

Managing water in the Fens is estimated to deliver in excess of £58bn worth of benefits – both through direct protection to people and properties, businesses, critical infrastructure, and agricultural land, and through indirect benefits to the local economy, for example through jobs, and the food and drink sector supply chain. 
 

The challenges in the Fens

Located across parts of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire the Fens landscape is largely below sea level – meaning it’s at the forefront of climate change.

Water levels must be managed 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year by the Environment Agency and Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs). Living and working in the Fens is only possible because of around 17,000 flood risk management and water level management assets, such as pumping stations and defences.

Careful management reduces the risk to the local area, including 370,000ha of agricultural land, 400,000 people and 500km of road and rail infrastructure. Without these, the area would revert to marshy fens and lowlands, liable to frequent flooding from the sea and rivers.

There are several pressures in the Fens including agricultural demands, population growth, areas of socio-economic deprivation, water availability for people and farming, increased flood risk and sea level rise. We’ll need to invest differently in the way we manage water and flood risk assets in future because of climate change impacts.

Many of the flood risk assets were built in the 1960s primarily to manage the land for food production and will need significant investment to maintain them in the medium and long term. We know there’s a significant funding gap – addressing this funding gap is a core reason for undertaking the Fens 2100+ programme now.

Over the next 100 years, an additional investment of £4.5bn will be needed to manage flood risk in the Fens – that’s based on today’s cost and not accounting for climate change. Applying current flood risk management funding rules to that £4.5bn would mean about 50% of it would be funded, the rest isn't.

Why is Fens 2100+ different?

We’re making sure we support how we deliver flood risk management now, but we're also looking to the medium and long-term to try to determine what's the right investment we need to make across this landscape that achieves the outcomes that we all want – for people, the environment, and more widely.

This is also about making sure we are putting the investment in the right places, not limiting future choices, and helping this landscape adapt to climate change into the future – rather than just doing what we've always done.

Fens 2100+ is a partnership project between:

• Environment Agency
• Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA)
• Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs)
• National Farmers Union (NFU)
• Anglian Northern and Great Ouse Regional Flood & Coastal Committees (RFCCs)

We’re responsible for developing a strategic case for continued investment in flood risk management across the Fens landscape and setting out the flood risk management investment choices required to ensure we have a vibrant and flourishing landscape, that’s adapting to the challenges of climate change.

"Ensure we invest in the right thing, in the right place and at the right time"
 

Summary for the Fens 2100+ projects