Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West and Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) financial and (b) other support her Department is providing to businesses which have been affected by floods to help them make resilient repairs to their properties.
Answered by Rory Stewart
As part of the Government’s £200m recovery support package those business affected by the flooding can access Business Support Grants and business rate relief. In addition businesses are eligible for the Property Level Resilience Scheme which is being administered by Local Authorities. This provides up to £5000 per flooded property to make resilient repairs.
The Environment Agency’s Climate Ready Support Service (CRSS) provides advice, guidance and tailored sector support to help organisations adapt to the changing climate. This includes a Business Resilience Healthcheck (BRHC). This was developed with Business in the Community and Climate UK (CUK) to help businesses identify their vulnerability to a number of risks, including severe weather events and climate change.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West and Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the evidential basis that underpinned the decision on the allocation of funding to Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Leeds flood defence scheme in 2011.
Answered by Rory Stewart
A proposal for a £188 million flood alleviation scheme for central Leeds was submitted to Defra in January 2010. The proposal was analysed and a number of concerns were identified. As a result of that analysis the Environment Agency agreed to work with Leeds City Council to consider alternatives. The City Council subsequently submitted a bid for the first phase of a phased scheme. We have committed £33 million to better protect Leeds City Centre, benefitting thousands of homes and businesses. No bid has yet been made for further phases.
Whenever an exceptional event happens it is important to review what happened and how to prepare for the future, and the Environment Agency will be doing this following the recent flooding incident. The flood response in Yorkshire will be overseen by Transport Minister Robert Goodwill, who has been appointed as Flooding Envoy to the county and will track progress on recovery and identify lessons learnt.
Work has also already started on the National Resilience Review, which is considering forecasting and modelling, resilience of key infrastructure and the way we make decisions on flood expenditure. The Review is being delivered by a cross-Government team and will be published in the summer.
In response to the flooding, £40 million of funding has been committed to repair flood defences. Construction of the new flood defences is already underway. The Secretary of State will be discussing this issue and the future resilience of the city with Leeds MPs shortly.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West and Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of flood defence spending in Leeds.
Answered by Rory Stewart
A proposal for a £188 million flood alleviation scheme for central Leeds was submitted to Defra in January 2010. The proposal was analysed and a number of concerns were identified. As a result of that analysis the Environment Agency agreed to work with Leeds City Council to consider alternatives. The City Council subsequently submitted a bid for the first phase of a phased scheme. We have committed £33 million to better protect Leeds City Centre, benefitting thousands of homes and businesses. No bid has yet been made for further phases.
Whenever an exceptional event happens it is important to review what happened and how to prepare for the future, and the Environment Agency will be doing this following the recent flooding incident. The flood response in Yorkshire will be overseen by Transport Minister Robert Goodwill, who has been appointed as Flooding Envoy to the county and will track progress on recovery and identify lessons learnt.
Work has also already started on the National Resilience Review, which is considering forecasting and modelling, resilience of key infrastructure and the way we make decisions on flood expenditure. The Review is being delivered by a cross-Government team and will be published in the summer.
In response to the flooding, £40 million of funding has been committed to repair flood defences. Construction of the new flood defences is already underway. The Secretary of State will be discussing this issue and the future resilience of the city with Leeds MPs shortly.