Flood risk management work in Somerset
Contents – quick links
Aims
Actions
Catchments
SRA Enhanced Programmes of works
SRA Annual Reports
Major projects using HotSWLEP money
Aims
The main aim of Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) is to give Somerset the greater flood protection and resilience that long experience has shown it needs.
In particular, the SRA is guided by its new SRA Strategy 2024-34. This evolved from Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action Plan, which was drawn up during the devastating floods of 2013-14. According to an Economic Impact Assessment, those floods cost Somerset up to £147.5million. Since 2014, more than £40million has been spent in Somerset to reduce flood risks.
Somerset Rivers Authority takes a catchment approach to reducing the risks and impacts of flooding across Somerset. The SRA funds additional maintenance and improvements to rivers and the land that drains down into them, to roads prone to flooding, and to structures such as culverts and drains. It also funds a wide range of activities designed to help communities, households, businesses and landowners become more resilient.
Works range from major engineering schemes costing hundreds of thousands of pounds (such as creating or repairing flood relief channels) to simple acts costing a few pounds (such as emptying a roadside gully).
No one move will ever solve all of Somerset’s flooding problems, so a mix of different measures is essential.
Actions
Dozens of SRA projects, with hundreds of different elements, are being taken forward.
New projects are added every year. They go into a yearly Enhanced Programme, approved by the SRA Board at a final budget-setting meeting held every March. Actions can also be added during the course of a year.
Some complex projects can take much longer than a year to design and deliver. This means that the SRA has all sorts of ongoing schemes at different stages of development.
Since its launch in January 2015, the SRA has approved funding for more than 250 Enhanced Programme activities across Somerset. The SRA also inherited 10 measures that got funding in 2014 from the Department for Communities & Local Government (as it was then called).
Money for SRA Enhanced Programme activities comes from council tax and contributions from Somerset’s Internal Drainage Boards.
Catchments
Somerset Rivers Authority takes a catchment approach to reducing the risks and impacts of flooding across Somerset.
A catchment is an area of land from which water – especially rainwater – drains and flows down into streams, rivers, lakes and often the sea.
Somerset’s five main river catchments are the River Parrett, the River Tone (which feeds in to the River Parrett at Burrowbridge), the Rivers Axe and Brue, the Somerset Frome, and the West Somerset part of the Somerset West, Exe and Lyn catchment (often referred to as West Somerset Streams).
Parts of the River Exe headwaters, the Dorset Stour and East Devon catchments also flow out of Somerset.
The PDFs below – all downloadable – summarise flood risks in Somerset for each of the county’s five main river catchments. Note that these PDFs are all about 30MB and may take a little while to materialise.
River Tone: River Tone catchment flood risks in Somerset
River Parrett: River Parrett catchment flood risks in Somerset, River Parrett and surrounding small rivers catchment flood risks in Somerset
River Axe and River Brue: River Axe River Brue catchment flood risks in Somerset
The Somerset Frome: River Frome catchment flood risks in Somerset
West Somerset Streams: Somerset West, Exe and Lyn catchment flood risks in Somerset
Somerset Rivers Authority analyses catchments to understand problems with excessive amounts of flood water.
It selects issues about which the SRA can do most in line with its objectives.
It funds proposals which duly benefit Somerset people and places, through SRA Enhanced Programmes of Works.
SRA Enhanced Programmes of works
2025-26
Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) has local funding of £3,132,887 for 2025-26. That is £3,112,887 from Somerset council tax, and £20,000 contributed by the Axe Brue and Parrett Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs).
This year’s budget is backed up with £855,900 of contingency funding, carried forward from previous years.
The total for 2025-26 is thus £3,988,787.
Of that total, £3,209,000 has been allocated to 14 different schemes and activities across Somerset.
Find out more about the SRA’s budget and about all 14 schemes and activities in the SRA’s Enhanced Programme of works for 2025-26.
All works are part of what is called the SRA’s Enhanced Programme. This reduces the risks and impacts of flooding across Somerset, in line with the objectives of the SRA Strategy 2024-34 and of the Somerset 20 Year Flood Action Plan drawn up during the devastating floods of 2014.
Because different parts of Somerset have different needs, and it makes sense to tackle different problems in a variety of ways, SRA activities lead to hundreds of improvements of different kinds. Some will take longer than one year to design and deliver.
SRA Board members approved the SRA’s 2025-26 budget and Enhanced Programme at an SRA Board meeting on 7 March 2025.
£320,000 of the SRA’s local funding for 2025-26 will be used for SRA staffing, operational costs and support services (legal, financial, auditing, governance), and small SRA projects and studies.
The SRA’s council tax charge has not increased since 2016, when it was introduced.
2024-25
Find out more about the SRA’s budget and about all 16 schemes and activities in the SRA’s Enhanced Programme of works for 2024-25.
2023-24
Find out more about the SRA’s budget for 2023-24 and about all 16 activities in the SRA’s Enhanced Programme of works for 2023-24.
2022-23
Find out more about the SRA’s finances for 2022-23 and about all 21 activities in the SRA’s Enhanced Programme of works for 2022-23.
2021-22
Find out more about the SRA’s finances for 2021-22 and about all 21 activities in the SRA’s Enhanced Programme of works for 2021-22.
2020-21
Find out more about the 23 activities in the SRA’s Enhanced Programme of works for 2020-21.
2019-20
Find out more about the 28 activities funded in the SRA Enhanced Programme of works for 2019-20.
2018-19
Find out more about the 22 activities funded in the SRA Enhanced Programme of works for 2018-19.
SRA Annual Reports
SRA work in 2023-24
The Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) Annual Report 2023-24 is now available to read and download.
Explore the SRA Annual Report 2023-24 on this website.
Download a PDF of the illustrated version of the SRA Annual Report 2023-24 – 48 pages, 10MB. This file may not suitable for users of assistive technology.
Download a PDF of a text only version: SRA Annual Report 2023-24 TEXT ONLY version – 32 pages, 0.3MB. This version is more straightforwardly accessible and easier and cheaper to print.
SRA work in 2022-23
Read – and download copies of – the SRA Annual Report 2022-23 on this website.
SRA work in 2021-22
Read about the Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2021-22 on this website.
SRA work in 2020-21
Read about the SRA Annual Report 2020-21.
SRA work in 2019-20
Read about the SRA Annual Report 2019-20.
SRA work in 2018-19
Read about the SRA Annual Report 2018-19.
SRA work in 2017-18
Read about the SRA’s End of Year Report for 2017-18
SRA work in 2016-17
Read about the SRA’s End of Year Report for 2016-17
SRA work in 2015-16
Read about the SRA’s End of Year Report for 2015-16
Major SRA projects funded by Heart of the SW Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal money
Several major projects were part-funded by Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (HotSWLEP) Growth Deal money (£13.049million).
All of that money was spent on the following works:
- Pioneer dredging activities on the River Parrett
- Development work on the Bridgwater Tidal Barrier
- River Sowy – King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD) Enhancements Scheme (Phase One)
- Natural flood management works to Slow the Flow of water as part of Hills to Levels
- Taunton Strategic Flood Alleviation Improvements Scheme
- New Highbridge surface water pumping station
A full account of the SRA’s spending of HotSWLEP money (PDF) was presented to the SRA Board on 5 March 2021.
HotSWLEP was wound up on 31 March 2024 and its functions transferred to Somerset Council and councils in Devon.
