Important external funding of £4.52 million has been secured for flood alleviation in Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2025/26. This Welsh Government support will complement the Council’s own investment in this priority area over the year ahead – enabling 27 further schemes to be developed and/or delivered.
This funding cannot be used by the Council to install main river flood defences as this can only be done by Natural Resources Wales. The funding will focus on improving culverts and drainage systems in areas identified as susceptible to flooding from ordinary watercourses, surface water and groundwater.
Each year, the Council benefits from Welsh Government support to carry out land drainage and flood risk improvements in communities. Officers identify projects, compile business cases and submit funding bids – while Council match-funding is identified through the ongoing Highways capital programme.
Welsh Government has now confirmed its funding to Rhondda Cynon Taf during 2025/26 via two of its programmes – the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Programme (£2.83 million) and the Small Scale Works Grant (£1.69 million).
A summary of the funding allocations across these two programmes, and the projects they encompass, has been provided at the bottom of this update.
Councillor Andrew Morgan OBE, Leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Investment, said: “This new and substantial funding support of £4.52 million will help the Council continue to deliver a large programme of flood alleviation schemes throughout 2025/26. We continue to prioritise protecting households, businesses and infrastructure from increasingly-frequent storm events, as a result of climate change.
“We’ve delivered more than £100 million of infrastructure upgrades and flood alleviation works since 2020 – and while Storm Bert in November suggested our investment succeeded in reducing flood risk to around 2,200 properties, it also served as a stark reminder that there’s still much more to be done. Welsh Government and the Council are committed to providing significant funding, to continue to deliver targeted investment that will alleviate flood risk in our communities.
“Welsh Government’s now-confirmed allocations for 2025/26 will enable us to develop or deliver 27 named flood alleviation schemes in Rhondda Cynon Taf over the year ahead. It’s also important to add that while Welsh Government’s allocation is £4.52 million, this does not include Council’s own match funding – typically at 15% for the respective flood alleviation programmes – meaning that the overall joint investment across our communities will be even larger.
“In addition, the Council has also bid to Welsh Government for Resilient Roads funding, to tackle known flooding issues at key locations on our highway network. Any successful bids would enable us to progress a further programme of works in 2025/26, building on good progress in recent years.
“The Council updated its Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan in February 2025, setting out our over-arching approach to flood risk over the next six years, while also publishing the Storm Bert Overview Report in March 2025. Alongside this, we’ve started the next stage of investigation into what happened in the storm. Residents are invited to submit evidence of flooding until April 28, to inform five future Section 19 reports specific to communities hit by flooding. These will determine the actions intended to be taken by the relevant Risk Management Authority for each instance of flooding.”
