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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page 13 of the the National Audit Office report entitled Resilience to flooding, published on 15 November 2023, how many (a) projects have been cancelled and (b) homes will no longer be better protected; and where those homes are located, by local authority area.

In March 2020, the Government doubled its investment in flood defences to a record £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. Since April 2021, over £1.5 billion has been invested in over 200 flood protection schemes, better protecting over 71,000 properties.

The capital investment programme is annually reviewed and updated to accommodate changes, including the introduction of new schemes or urgent works.

The Government is aware of the challenges and delays caused by inflation and the availability of skills and labour across the sector. The start of the programme was also impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in fewer people to develop projects and delayed mobilisation of construction activity.

As stated in the NAO report, the Environment Agency forecast that 1,500 projects will provide better protection to 200,000 properties by the end of the programme in March 2027.

Delivery is the Government’s key priority, and we are working with the Environment Agency to review the programme in the light of the impacts of inflation and the pandemic. More information will be available in due course.