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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made on investment in flood defences.

As the Government manifesto outlines, we will continue to invest a record £2.5 billion over six years to better protect the country from flooding. This includes over 1,500 flood defence schemes, which will better protect more than 300,000 properties by 2021.

From April 2015 until May 2017, this investment has given better protection to 97,000 homes. This has been achieved by £785 million of Government grants in aid and £179 million of external contributions.