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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the proportion of Grade 1 agricultural land at high risk of flooding.

As well as protecting more than 300,000 homes, the 2015-21 £2.6 billion flood investment programme worked with farmers to reduce the risk of flooding to nearly 600,000 acres of agricultural land. The 2021-27 capital programme will also offer increased protection to agricultural land. The Environment Agency does not break down the figure by land classification grade.

Current offers to support farmers include the Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme, which supports farmers to improve water quality and manage flood risk through a range of grants and advice from Catchment Sensitive Farming. Support from the CS scheme to manage flood risk includes grants to reward farmers to control runoff and make space for water. The yearly breakdown of these costs is not centrally held.

We are also introducing our new environmental land management schemes, which reward environmental benefits, including protection from environmental hazards such as flooding.