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 bring forward legislative proposals to make it easier for communities to establish a Water Management Board.

There is currently a technical barrier to the creation of new and expansion of existing internal drainage boards (IDBs), also known as water level management boards. The Government has amended the Land Drainage Act 1991, via the Environment Act 2021, to remove this barrier. This enables new updated valuation calculations for IDBs to use in apportioning their expenses between the beneficiaries of their work - drainage rates paid by farmers and special levies paid by local authorities - to be included in secondary legislation. We will aim to implement the statutory instrument as soon as possible, pending the outcome of the consultation which we hope to launch shortly.

It is a local choice where a new IDB is created, where there is local support to do so.