Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits making flood resilience grants available throughout the year.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Risk Management Authorities can develop local Property Flood Resilience (PFR) grant schemes and apply to Regional Flood and Coastal Committees for a contribution towards their cost through Local-Levy or Grant-in-Aid.
As set out in our Policy Statement, we want to encourage a faster transition to a market place for PFR, including advice, products and service delivery. We also want to ensure the right incentives and financial products are available to encourage property flood resilience installation. This winter, we will be publishing a Call for Evidence on PFR policy.
In addition, we are investing £200m in an innovative resilience programme to drive and test innovation at a local level to improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion. This includes an action on PFR. We will be inviting expressions of interest later this year.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans the Government has to incentivise the installation of flood (a) resistant and (b) resilient measures to help improve protections for properties from future flooding.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government launched a Policy Statement in July 2020 setting out how we want to boost uptake of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) in homes and businesses across the country. We want to encourage a faster transition to a market place for property flood resilience, including advice, service provision, products, and incentives.
We want the right incentives and financial products in place to encourage uptake of property flood resilience. We are considering options to remove barriers through the operation of the Flood Re scheme. This will include encouraging insurers to price policies in ways that reflect risk reductions as a result of PFR and enable the scheme to support insurance pay-outs covering the additional cost of recoverable repairs. This winter, we will be consulting on these changes and publishing a Call for Evidence on PFR policy.
£2.9 million funding from the 2018 budget is already supporting 3 pathfinder projects up to September 2021 in Yorkshire, the South West and South Midlands. The funding is creating demonstration centres, engaging with suppliers and developing advice portals to promote uptake of PFR by homes and businesses. These innovative schemes will provide useful learning for other local authorities.
In addition, we are investing £200m to drive and test innovation at a local level to improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion. There will be a PFR action as part of this. We will be inviting expressions of interest later this year.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on updating building regulations to include resilience standards that must be met when properties that have been flooded are being reinstated.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHCLG) are in regular contact.
MHCLG keeps Building-Regulations under review. Approved Document C includes a reference to potential damage from flooding and states that buildings should be designed to mitigate this flood risk. Defra worked with MHCLG in 2015 on the development of a British Standard (BS85500:2015) on flood resilient construction for new buildings and retrofits for existing buildings, which complements building regulations.