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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of climate change on (a) inland waterways and (b) the costs of maintaining inland waterways.

Ministers do not have a role in operational matters on inland waterways, which rests with the navigation authorities that own and manage them. This includes having appropriate maintenance programmes in place to ensure public safety and resilience of their assets and infrastructure against the effects of climate change. Under the upcoming fourth round of climate adaptation reporting (ARP4), introduced under the Climate Change Act 2008, the Government will invite the Canal and River Trust (C&RT) and the Environment Agency to report on their canal and river activities.

On 10 July the Government announced a very substantial grant of over £400 million new funding for the C&RT between 2027 and 2037. This is a significant sum of money and a sign of the importance that we place on our inland waterways. It will provide the C&RT with certainty about the level of Government grant funding for its future business planning and continue to support the C&RT to maintain its canal network.