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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the £5.2 billion funding to build new flood defences announced in her Department's Flood and coastal erosion risk management policy statement, published in July 2020, how much of that funding (a) has been allocated and (b) is available.

We are in the third year of the current 6-year £5.2billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme. The funding can be spent on projects that better protect properties in England as well as the development of future projects.

At the end of March 2023, the Environment Agency estimated that approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested with over 200 flood risk schemes completed. Over £800 million will be invested in the current financial year until March 2024 and the remaining money is indicatively allocated to projects until the end of March 2027.