Consultation on draft Statutory Instrument: The English Drainage Boards (Alternative Valuation Calculation) Regulations 2024

Internal drainage boards (IDBs), which are locally funded and operated statutory public bodies, are responsible in their area of operation, for water level management and managing flood risk. There are 112 independent IDBs in England and they are mainly funded by the beneficiaries of their work, through drainage rates on agricultural landowners and special levies on local authorities. IDBs use a land valuation calculation to apportion their expenses between landowners and local authorities. This is based on historic ratings data which is missing or incomplete and is preventing new IDBs from being created and existing IDBs from expanding their boundaries. To address this, the government has made a technical change to the Land Drainage Act 1991, via the Environment Act 2021, setting out a new valuation calculation which enables the use of more up-to-date data from the Valuation Office Agency. This approach will apply to drainage rates and special levie