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 help facilitate research on the cause of the flooding on the River Severn in March 2020, in order to prevent destruction as a result of flooding in the future.

The Environment Agency’s (EA) River Severn river modelling and flood mapping is currently being updated to incorporate the latest available data, including information gathered as a result of last winter’s flooding events. The £250,000 Grant-in-Aid investment will deliver a completed model by the end of 2021.

As well as updating flood risk mapping, this new flood model will deliver evidence to support the flood warning service, potential future flood schemes, and will inform the Environment Agency’s advice in response to proposals to develop within the catchment. It is already being used to support delivery of the ambitions of the River Severn Partnership, including the Shrewsbury Water Management Scheme which has the potential to deliver significant flood risk, environmental, water resource and growth benefits. The scheme is in the early stages of development and has already benefitted from government funding of £30 million.

In addition, in July the Government chose the River Severn Partnership alongside three other places to test and develop climate adaptive pathway plans, providing £1.5 million of funding from the Innovative Resilience Programme. This will enable the Environment Agency to work with local partners through the River Severn Partnership to assess a range of climate change scenarios, and identify the right current and future decisions required to manage the risk of flooding and coastal change.