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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of businesses that have been flooded by rising water levels on Lake Windermere in each of the last ten years.

Since the late 1990s the Windermere Lake area has been subject to flooding on several occasions, notably in 1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, and 2015. The Environment Agency (EA) estimates that approximately 94 businesses flooded in 2015 as a result of rising water levels on Lake Windermere.

The EA does not have records of numbers of businesses flooded prior to 2015. The Windermere Lake peak level record was set in 2009. The impact of the 2009 event will therefore have encompassed a greater number of flooded businesses relative to any other year.