Thank you for your interest in this role, and taking a step to make a tangible difference in peoples lives.
In Defra, we deal with a vast range of issues that profoundly impact individuals and families. We are responsible for Englands environment, countryside and rural economy, the food and farming sectors and have responsibility for protection from a wide range of natural threats and hazards.
The main purpose of the Infrastructure Category Team is to provide commercial support to the Environment Agency in the delivery of its Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) Capital programme, which provides and maintains flood defense assets to vulnerable communities and protecting homes, lives and livelihoods. The Environment Agency has recently received a significant increase to its capital funding for the next 6 years to 2027. The Infrastructure Category team is increasing its team to ensure we have the required level of expertise and capacity to support this larger programme of works. The last 6-year programme was funded to a level of £2.6bn and targeted the better protection against flooding to 300,000 homes. The next 6-year programme, to 2027, has received funding of £5.2bn and is to deliver better protection to 336,000 homes, businesses and key national infrastructure.
There is a significant and exciting challenge in delivering a programme of this nature alongside other critical targets like Net Zero Carbon, Biodiversity Net Gain and efficiency savings. Our ambition is to build on our existing expertise and develop a commercial organisation that reaches new levels of performance and is wiling to adopt innovative commercial approaches. We are expected to deliver maximum value and benefits from our expenditure. The commercial positions we are recruiting into are considered to be essential members of integrated project delivery teams and are core roles which significantly contribute to the achievement of a number of key corporate objectives for the Environment Agency and Defra.
I hope you'll be excited by the opportunity to join us. This is a great, meaningful opportunity to join a forwarding thinking, progressive team and make a real difference on our journey to create commercial expertise at the heart of sustainable business delivery.
