Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of businesses in Leeds who (a) applied and (b) were deemed eligible for the (i) business recovery grant, (ii) business rates relief and (c) Flood Resilience-Resistance grant since flooding over Christmas 2015.

Leeds City Council has to date received £4.7 million from the Community and Business Relief Scheme with more funding to follow once property numbers are finalised. Central Government will fully fund 100% Business Rates relief for a minimum of 3 months for any flooded business that meets the eligibility criteria. To date, Leeds City Council has received an advance payment of £586,863 for Business Rates relief.

Shortly, we will be asking affected local authorities to provide data on how they have used their funding, but our task currently is to do everything we can to help towns and communities recover from these devastating floods.