Out now: Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2025-26
Dozens of places across Somerset feature in the newly published Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) Annual Report 2025-26.
The report describes how the SRA spent £4.534 million on a wide range of schemes and activities designed to reduce the risks and impacts of flooding.
Read the Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2025-26 on this website.
Get an illustrated 40-page PDF of the Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2025-26 (4 MB).
Get a 34-page TEXT ONLY version of the Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2025-26 (0.3MB).
About the SRA
Somerset has the only Rivers Authority in the country: it’s a partnership of Somerset Council, the Parrett and Axe Brue Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs), the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Wessex Regional Flood & Coastal Committee and Wessex Water.
The SRA currently gets just over £3.2 million a year through council tax and contributions from the Parrett and Axe Brue IDBs. This funding enables SRA partners and others to do extra works on local priorities that would not otherwise happen.
It’s 11 years since the SRA was set up in the wake of the devastating floods of 2013-14.
About 2025-26, the £50 million and the SRA’s £3.2million
SRA Chair Cllr Mike Stanton says that 2025-26 was “perhaps the most significant year since the SRA’s birth” in 2015.
He explains: “Last September saw the completion of our major improvements along the River Sowy – King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD), where bank-raising means more water can now be discharged faster from the Somerset Levels and Moors. Since then, events have included near-disastrous floods in January, a ministerial visit in February, the May 2026 report of the government’s Climate Change Committee, and June’s announcement from the Government of £50million extra for Somerset flood resilience.
“Some would judge that January was the peak of our endeavours, because the completed KSD work protected Moorland from flooding.
“Others would say that we are now launched on a period of significant improvement thanks to the £50m additional funding from government.
“I would say that we will never completely prevent flooding, but we will keep persevering with keeping it under control to the extent that climate change permits.
“Right now we’re awaiting storm deluges following the summer’s heatwaves; they’ll fall on dry ground so may cause flash flooding.”
Plans are being drawn up for spending the Government’s special one-off allocation of £50 million over the next couple of years, from 1 October onwards, on improving Somerset’s flood resilience and reducing flood risks.
Cllr Stanton says: “Somerset Council’s officers and executive members are working with the SRA and other organisations on how to deliver this unexpected yet very welcome additional funding efficiently and wisely.
“Meanwhile, at the SRA we are continuing to use our £3.2m per annum as efficiently and protectively as we can – while seeking a way to increase our funding in the mid to long term, so that we can sustain the useful benefits our partnership brings across Somerset.”
The SRA’s “useful benefits”
Many of those “useful benefits” are set out in the SRA Annual Report 2025-26. They include:
- dredging and silt-monitoring
- bank-raising
- main river maintenance
- River Brue modelling
- natural flood management schemes and activities
- studies and surveys
- gully emptying and drain jetting
- emergency plans
- flood group networks
- grants for training and equipment
- and grants to help communities reduce their own flood risks
This year’s report includes – as a new feature – some judgements from local people and organisations on SRA-funded schemes and activities.
Local knowledge, flash floods, climate change
Cllr Stanton says: “Local organisations – parishes and local flood groups – will play an increasing role in our work. People locally know where the water comes from, where it goes, where the pinch points are. Our new Community Flood Action Fund (CFAF) is already helping many communities reduce risk.”
Cllr Stanton says that flood risks – particularly the risks of flash floods – are being intensified by climate change.
“Scientists were warning of climate change in the 1960s when I was at university. By the 1980s it was becoming a serious political issue.
“Now we are seeing the painful results – and it will get worse before it gets better.
“So we have much to do over the coming decade.”
Get your copy of the SRA Annual Report 2025-26
You can read the entire text of the Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2025-26 on the SRA website. It’s split up into manageable sections.
You can get an illustrated 40-page PDF of the Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2025-26 (4 MB).
Or a 34-page TEXT ONLY version of the Somerset Rivers Authority Annual Report 2025-26 (0.3MB).