Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of the flood risk and coastal erosion risk management budget has been allocated to nature based solutions in the current financial year.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Many projects in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Capital Investment Programme deliver a combination of nature-based solutions (NBS) and hard defences, and we do not explicitly capture the expenditure on NBS separately. Due to this, we are unable to separate spend on NBS into each financial year.
For the years available, the total investment across the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Capital Investment Programme from April 2021 to March 2024 was £3.5 billion, with approximately £40.6 million spent on NBS. The total forecast investment across the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Capital Investment Programme for the current financial year, 2025/26, is £1.1 billion, with an estimated £24.8 million allocated for schemes that include NBS.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of the Flood Risk and Coastal Erosion Risk Management budget was spent on nature based solutions in the (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Many projects in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Capital Investment Programme deliver a combination of nature-based solutions (NBS) and hard defences, and we do not explicitly capture the expenditure on NBS separately. Due to this, we are unable to separate spend on NBS into each financial year.
For the years available, the total investment across the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Capital Investment Programme from April 2021 to March 2024 was £3.5 billion, with approximately £40.6 million spent on NBS. The total forecast investment across the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Capital Investment Programme for the current financial year, 2025/26, is £1.1 billion, with an estimated £24.8 million allocated for schemes that include NBS.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to implement the proposed land use framework.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government ran a consultation on land use in England from January to April this year. The responses to this consultation, and feedback from supporting workshops, are being analysed. These responses and outputs will inform the preparation of the Land Use Framework, which will be published in due course.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support land owners to implement nature based solutions to (a) drainage and (b) flood management.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farmers and landowners have an increasingly important role to play in reducing the risk of flooding and coastal erosion, through measures such as nature-based solutions (NbS).
To support this the Government is investing in NbS measures, such as natural flood management (NFM), via its Environmental Land Management schemes and floods investment programme.
On 3 June we launched a consultation on reforming our approach to investing in flooding and coastal erosion for communities across the country. The proposals will enable a broader range of resilience interventions and will make it easier to invest in natural flood management schemes that also boost nature, water resources and fight climate change.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to bring into force the legislative provisions of schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 for the adoption of sustainable draining systems in England.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to requiring standardised Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in new developments. These should be to designs that cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits, reduce run off and help to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity. It is also important to ensure appropriate adoption and maintenance arrangements are in place.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to expand the Flood Resilience Scheme to households which (a) have been affected outside named storms and (b) are at risk of flooding in the future.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences.
Included in this programme, the Environment Agency is working proactively with local authorities to deliver Property Flood Resilience (PFR) projects, where it is cost beneficial to do so, in areas where PFR is the best solution for reducing flood risk. The EA’s PFR programme is focused on reducing risk to those households and businesses at the highest risk.
Separately, we continue to support those who were affected by last year’s Storms Babet and Henk thought the PFR grant scheme, which can provide up to £5000 for eligible households and businesses to install PFR measures.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Flood Resilience Task Force is taking to help protect communities in Loughborough constituency from flood damage.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ensure that communities are better protected from flooding, Defra has established a ministerially led cross-Governmental Flood Resilience Taskforce, with the first meeting taking place in September. The Flood Resilience Taskforce will ensure that preparedness and resilience to flooding is reviewed regularly before the start of the main flood season; and that it is continuously improved to ensure optimum protection to people, homes and businesses.
In advance of the winter flood season, the Environment Agency has been directed to carry out maintenance of its flood defence assets across Loughborough. This includes monthly operational checks of structures including outfalls / control gates, weekly operational checks and clearance of debris screens. A structural survey of the flood wall at Quorn is also scheduled for this autumn.