Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of rivers (a) are fit for and (b) require (i) upgrading work for and (ii) extensive maintenance for flood risk management purposes; what the names are of those (A) rivers and (B) stretches of river; what plans he has to undertake that work; and if he will make a statement.

The Environment Agency (EA) prioritises maintenance, improvement or construction work on main rivers that pose the greatest flood risk for people, homes and businesses. The EA maintains 36,000 km of main rivers in England for flood risk management purposes.

The EA uses its own assessments and modelling to identify required maintenance and publishes this in a programme each year. The published 5 year maintenance programme shows what work is intended to maintain, repair or refurbish assets, which includes work on main rivers. This is available through a postcode search on gov.uk at https://environment.data.gov.uk/asset-management/index.html. The maintenance requirement varies each year often as a result of weather conditions.

Maintenance activities on main rivers to manage flood risk appropriately includes clearing overgrown vegetation, dredging, controlling populations of rabbits on embankments, maintaining pumps, repointing brick walls and repairs to culverts. The EA’s annual river maintenance programme is timetabled using information from inspections, maintenance standards, levels of flood risk and from legal and statutory obligations.

Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, the EA invested over £180 million on maintenance for flood and coastal risk management to ensure communities continue to be protected.