Environment Agency construction pipeline grows

The Environment Agency’s construction pipeline is expanding, with billions of pounds in framework, flood defence, and coastal protection work creating opportunities across the construction supply chain.

Key opportunities include a newly awarded £1.5 billion Beach Management Framework (Project ID: 25161728) and a Collaborative Delivery Framework worth up to £6.6 billion, currently being procured for delivery from 2027 onwards (Project ID: 24089881). Together with a growing stream of contract awards, these programmes are increasing the agency’s importance as a source of future workload.

Top client

This increase in spending has seen the Environment Agency enter Glenigan’s rankings of the construction industry’s Top 50 clients.

In the 12 months to June 2026, the Environment Agency awarded £166.5 million-worth of work and was ranked in 33rd position. This spending is up from £107.8 million in the same period a year earlier.

Major contract awards in this period range from a £12.2 million package of coastal defence works at Torcross Rock Armour in Devon (Project ID: 26325118) to a £65 million flood defence scheme at Tamworth in Staffordshire (Project ID: 26142691).

More than 90% of the Environment Agency contract awards over the past year have been smaller schemes valued at £10 million or less, such as the £5.1 million Hebble Brook Flood Alleviation Scheme in West Yorkshire (Project ID: 22190942) and a £5.8 million refurbishment of a sluice at Hockwold and Wissey in Norfolk (Project ID: 26283842).

Council partnerships

On major projects, the Environment Agency often works with local authorities to bring schemes forward, and a number are in the pipeline.

The £180 million Portsea Island Southsea Coastal Defence Scheme involves replacing 80-year-old defences across a 4.5-km stretch of coastline from Long Curtain Moat to Eastney Barracks (Project ID: 17300837). The work is being carried out with Portsmouth City Council and will run until 2028, with a major package from Clarence Pier and South Parade Pier expected to begin in April 2027.

The £180 million Ventnor Coastal Defence Scheme is due to get underway in 2029 (Project ID: 26031267). Work includes refurbishing more than 3 km of existing coastal defences around Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Procurement has begun with a Prior Information Notice published earlier this year.

Elsewhere, the £150 million Millmead Flood Prevention scheme will help Guildford Borough Council meet its housing targets, and a start is expected in 2028 (Project ID: 24101788).

Growing work

With global warming creating an increasing number of flood threats during the UK winter, the Environment Agency has a growing programme of problems that the construction industry will be needed to solve.