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 implications for his policies of the flooding that followed Storm Babet.

Storm Babet brought persistent and heavy rain to the north and midlands of England overnight on Thursday 19 October and through the following Friday and Saturday. There were around 2,150 properties flooded during Storm Babet and over 96,000 properties protected by existing flood defences. Defra opened its Emergency Operations Centre on 19 October, having led a series of preparedness meetings during the week, upgrading its response to activate the National Flood Response Centre as the forecast deteriorated.

Government recognises the impact flooding has on households, business and local authorities and has put in place a significant package of support for areas in England that experienced exceptional localised flooding as a result of Storm Babet. Following approval from Defra’s Secretary of State, Defra has also activated the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Grant scheme. The PFR Scheme is a package of funding for property owners directly flooded by a specific weather event that grants them up to £5,000 per property to install PFR measures.

We keep our policies under review, including factoring in experience from any flood events.