Azets, the accountancy and business advisory firm, has been appointed as the inaugural finance partner for a pioneering community project designed to protect Leeds from future flooding.

The firm’s Leeds office will provide outsourced financial management and company secretarial support to the Aire Resilience Company (ARC). The newly formed Community Interest Company (CIC) is a collaboration between Leeds City Council, Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency, and the Rivers Trust.

ARC aims to mitigate the threat of climate change through one of the UK’s largest natural flood management (NFM) schemes. The initiative focuses on the upper and mid Aire catchment and includes large-scale tree planting and soil aeration to reduce river peak flows by 5%—a target calculated to offset projected river level rises through to 2069.

Matthew Grant, Yorkshire Head of Accounts and Business Advisory at Azets, said: “ARC has the power to protect people, businesses and infrastructure from the devastating impact of flooding. As someone who has worked in Leeds for many years and has witnessed the damage and misery flooding has caused, I am delighted that I personally and the company that I work for has stepped up.”

The project follows the catastrophic 2015 Boxing Day floods, which cost the Leeds economy an estimated £36.8m and caused over £500m in damage across the wider region.

Jonathan Moxon, ARC Director, added: “Their involvement has allowed us to create a sustainable, long-term way of carrying out vital work to protect Leeds for decades to come.”

The ARC model relies on annual contributions from Leeds-based businesses, typically via five-year contracts, to fund conservation partners working alongside farmers and landowners.