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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the impact of maintaining the maximum flood resilience repair grant at £5000 on (a) levels of take up and (b) the type of property covered.

When activated, the Defra PFR Repair Grant Scheme provides for up to £5000 as a contribution towards making a property more flood resilient. It is intended as a one-off payment to assist households and business to put place in measures that will provide greater resilience to future floods. It is not intended as compensation for flooding. Property owners can choose to add to the available grant to implement further PFR measures in their property.

There is a reasonable expectation that property owners will take steps, including having suitable insurance, which may now include an additional up to £10,000 for resilient repairs under the Build Back Better scheme.

The level of grant is kept under review and for the recent activations of the scheme we have increased the amount that can be claimed as part of the £5,000 grant to enable PFR surveys to be undertaken.