Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure the adequacy of resources available to the Environment Agency for the maintenance of (a) flood defences and (b) drainage systems.
The Government is investing £2.6 billion between 2015 and 2021 to deliver more than 1,000 flood defence projects to better protect 300,000 homes by 2021.This is on top of £1 billion to maintain flood defence assets between 2015 and 2020. This includes investing in developing technology and direct maintenance work such as managing drainage systems, inspecting assets and carrying out repairs. This is a real-terms increase when compared with the average annual capital investment of £812 million over the previous five years. Defra will continue to work with the Environment Agency to consider future investment needs ahead of the Budget announcement on future floods funding on 11 March 2020.