Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost of flooding was to (a) businesses, (b) home owners and (c) the insurance industry in each of the last five years for which information is available.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency looks at long term national trends, rates of optimal spend, but only calculate the eco-nomic costs of an actual flood in occasional circumstances due to the significant time and cost associated with undertaking the reports. Therefore, the Government does not hold this data.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the expected lifespan is of flood resilience schemes.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes are typically designed for a 50-year lifespan, although this can vary. This figure assumes maintenance and reconditioning where required, the Environment Agency’s annual maintenance programme is available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has he made of trends in the level of risk of surface water flooding; and what steps his Department is taking to help tackle these risks.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency report the number of properties at risk from surface water flooding in their Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Annual Report. It is currently estimated 3.4 million properties are at risk. A number of actions are underway to help reduce this risk and improve our understanding further.
As part of the government’s £5.2billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme, funding has been allocated to hundreds of projects up and down the country to better protect people and properties from surface water flooding.
Since 2020, the Environment Agency has supported 41 lead local flood authorities to enhance local surface water flood risk mapping, following £3.5 million in grants from the government. This new mapping will provide 4.6 million people with more detailed information and enable more targeted action. The information will also be incorporated into the new National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA2) that will provide a single picture of current and future flood risk from rivers, the sea and surface water.
The Environment Agency are leading the £150 million flood and coastal resilience innovation programme where 25 local areas are demonstrating how practical innovative actions can work to improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion. More than half of these projects are looking at innovation to mitigate against and adapt to surface water flooding.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department invested in upper catchment management schemes in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency’s catchment-based approach to flood and coastal erosion risk management can include work on both upland and lower catchment areas. The Environment Agency does not collect data on whether a project is in an upper catchment.
Nature-based solutions have an important contribution to play in achieving climate resilient places. The Environment Agency’s £15m Natural Flood Management programme has demonstrated the important role nature-based projects can have in helping to slow the flow and store flood waters.
A new £25 million fund for Natural Flood Management (NFM) aims to provide flood risk reduction benefits as well as wider benefits to society and nature across England. NFM measures work best when a catchment-based approach is taken, to manage the flow of water from the source of our rivers to the sea, across our towns, cities, countryside and coasts.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many properties which have property level resilience measures installed have been flooded.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Property Flood Resilience (PFR) covers a range of measures designed to reduce damage caused by flooding. This includes measures to keep water out, such as flood doors and barriers, and also internal changes to lessen the impact of flooding, such as hard floors and raising electrics.
A property with PFR measures may flood but suffer minimal damage because of the internal changes made. The property owner would not necessarily report this to the Environment Agency, their local authority or their insurer. Therefore, the data to answer this question is not available.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Environment Agency on the (a) accuracy and (b) targeting of flood warning mechanisms.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Defra’s arm’s length bodies, including the Environment Agency, on a range of issues. This includes many topics on flood and coastal erosion risk management such as the Environment Agency’s flood risk maps and models.
The Environment Agency provides the Check for flooding service giving information on flood alerts and warnings as well as a five-day forecast. The Environment Agency uses its flood warning system to directly alert those who have signed up to receive flood warnings when flooding is expected in their area. There are currently around 1.6 million people signed up to receive these warnings.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to increase funding for flood resilience.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government announced in March 2020 a record £5.2 billion investment over 6 years in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. Since April 2021, over £1.5 billion has been invested in flood defence projects across the country and over 67,000 properties have been better protected from flooding. On 26 July 2022, the Government announced the creation of a new £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance from within the £5.2 billion programme, to support communities that have experienced repeated flooding, reducing the risk of flooding in the future. An additional investment of £170 million of economic recovery funding was provided for 23 flood defence schemes across the country that were shovel ready.
The Government is investing a further £200 million is in the Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme to help over 25 local areas to take forward wider innovative actions to improve their resilience to flooding and coastal erosion.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the potential impact of development in flood plains on the number of properties at risk of flooding.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
Flood risk is an important consideration in the planning system and there are strong safeguards in place. The government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is clear that inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk, including floodplains.
In 2022/23, 96% of all planning decisions complied with Environment Agency (EA) advice on flood risk. In the same year, 99% of new homes proposed in planning applications complied with EA advice on flood risk.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to assess future flood risks.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Creating climate resilient places lies at the heart of the Environment Agency’s (EA) National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England and Roadmap to 2026.
The EA is currently developing a new National Flood Risk Assessment that will provide a single picture of current and future flood risk from rivers, the sea and surface water, using both existing detailed local information and improved national data. The new risk assessment will provide a better understanding of both current and future flood risk accounting for a range of climate change scenarios.
The EA is also updating the full National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping (NCERM) dataset. The update will include coastal erosion predictions for England through this century and provide an updated assessment of residential and non-residential properties at risk. The updated NCERM will be published in 2024 and will provide the best available information on coastal erosion risk.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including leasehold properties in the Flood:RE insurance scheme.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Flood Re scheme allows for insurers to offer discounted premiums to leasehold properties consisting of three or less units where the freeholder lives in one of the units. As larger blocks, of four or more units, are classified as a commercial business, the Flood Re scheme does not apply for buildings insurance. Tenants and leaseholders can obtain contents insurance supported by Flood Re, regardless of the size of the block.
Regulation 27 of the Flood Reinsurance (Scheme Funding and Administration) Regulations 2015 sets out that Flood Re must produce a report at least every five years which reviews the scheme. How leasehold properties are included in the Scheme will be fully assessed as part of this review. Flood Re intend to publish the review in summer 2024, which the Secretary of State will consider in due course.