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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support land owners to implement nature based solutions to (a) drainage and (b) flood management.

Farmers and landowners have an increasingly important role to play in reducing the risk of flooding and coastal erosion, through measures such as nature-based solutions (NbS).

To support this the Government is investing in NbS measures, such as natural flood management (NFM), via its Environmental Land Management schemes and floods investment programme.

On 3 June we launched a consultation on reforming our approach to investing in flooding and coastal erosion for communities across the country. The proposals will enable a broader range of resilience interventions and will make it easier to invest in natural flood management schemes that also boost nature, water resources and fight climate change.