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 merits of increasing green spaces in the UK to reduce the effect of flash flooding.

As set out in our 25 Year Environment Plan, this Government recognises the importance of green spaces for health and happiness as well as for environmental benefits such as sequestering carbon, absorbing noise, cleansing pollutants, absorbing surface water and reducing high temperatures. In the right place, using green spaces in towns and cities to help divert or store flood water can be beneficial, including using sustainable drainage systems such as permeable surfaces and ponds or natural flood management techniques in towns and cities as well as upstream.

As we build more homes, preserving and creating green spaces in towns is more important than ever. We want to encourage local authorities to consider all flood management opportunities and developers to take into account all the benefits when deciding how much land to allocate as green space.

To support this we have worked with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to revise the National Planning Policy Framework to further encourage sustainable drainage systems, and published our Surface Water Management Action Plan which includes actions that will join up planning for surface water management and build local authority capacity. In addition, Natural England is developing a framework of national standards for green infrastructure in close consultation with stakeholders.