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 take steps to ensure that (a) natural flood management, (b) urban tree planting, (c) peatland restoration, (d) sustainable urban drainage and (e) other nature-based approaches to climate adaptation are a key part of the forthcoming third National Adaptation Programme.

(a) Nature-based solutions make a positive contribution to achieving climate resilient places particularly at a community led, river catchment scale. They can support flood and coastal resilience, improve water supply and quality as well as contribute to wider climate change and sustainable development objectives.

The Environment Agency’s £15 million Natural Flood Management (NFM) programme demonstrated the important role nature-based projects can have in helping to slow the flow and store flood waters. The measures in the 60 pilot projects included planting trees, creating leaky barriers, restoring peatland and restoring salt marshes. On 8 December 2022, the Environment Agency published an evaluation report on the NFM programme.

Later this year the Environment Agency will update its Working with Natural Processes Evidence Directory. This will help share evidence and best practice about how to develop natural flood management projects

(b) The National Adaptation Programme (NAP) covers priority risks identified by the Climate Change Committee including risks to trees and woodland carbon storage. We recognise the important role urban trees play in this, which is why we are supporting the planting of them through the Urban Tree Challenge Fund and Local Authority Treescapes Fund. The National Planning Policy Framework and Urban Tree Manual highlight the role of urban trees and the recently published local Tree & Woodland Strategy Toolkit recognises their contribution to core climate change mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity goals in Government policy.

(c) Peatland restoration is already a Defra priority and we have ambitious targets to restore over 35,000 hectares of peat in England by 2025 and 280,000 hectares by 2050, as will be set out in the NAP. The England Peat Action Plan (2021) outlines what action is needed to ensure that peatlands contribute to climate adaptation, preserving their carbon store while also providing water storage, flood management functions and space for nature.

(d) The third National Adaptation Pathway will set out how the water sector is mitigating against the risks presented by climate change. This includes outlining where Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes (SuDS) represent an adaptation measure in the event of climate events, e.g increased rainfall. The Environment Agency maintains a national overview of SuDS, advising the Government on policy matters. On 10 January 2023, the Government reviewed making SuDS mandatory in new developments. The Government accepted the review’s recommendation to mandate SuDS in England through implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. SuDS use features such as ponds, rain gardens and grass to absorb the rain and tanks and pipes to slow the flow to the sewer, reducing the risk of surface water and sewer flooding. This will help limit volumes entering drainage networks which will help ease the pressure on the sewerage system and mitigate flood risk. The Government is now considering how best to implement, considering scope, threshold, and process and there will be a public consultation later this year.

(e) Nature-based solutions play a key role in tackling climate change and managing its impacts. Restoring our natural habitats has a myriad of potential benefits for helping communities to adapt to climate change risks – from natural flood management to urban cooling – as well as for helping to support the resilience of ecosystems themselves to climate change. The third NAP will cover a suite of programmes that the Government is delivering to support the resilient recovery of nature, as well as to maximise their adaptive benefits, as exemplified above.