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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the new funding formula for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management will include a specific category for rapidly eroding coastlines.

On 14 October, following consultation, the Government announced major changes to its flood and coastal erosion funding policy.

Under the new rules, projects will be prioritised by their benefit-to-cost ratios to drive value for money, with partnership contributions boosting a project’s prioritisation. Benefits include those of protecting coastal communities.

The new funding policy will optimise funding between building new flood and coastal erosion projects and maintaining existing defences and will ensure that deprived communities continue to receive vital investment. We will use Government funding to unlock investment from public, private and charitable sources, making every £1 of Government investment go further. We will also invest at least £300 million in natural flood management over ten years – the highest figure to date for the floods programme.

On coastal erosion, working with the Environment Agency, we will explore how we can take forward the current Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme. We will build on lessons learned, also recognising the growing source of risk in this area from the latest NCERM data.