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 ensure that surface water flooding infrastructure is resilient to extreme weather events.

Our long-term Flood and coastal erosion risk management Policy Statement, published last year, outlines our policies and supporting actions to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. It will accelerate progress to protect better and prepare better the country against flooding and coastal erosion in the face of more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change. This includes surface water flooding, the most widespread form of flooding in England.

Earlier this year we restated our commitment to tackle surface water flood risk and published an update report on surface water management, which includes progress to date with our Surface Water Management Action Plan and our response to the independent review into surface water and drainage responsibilities.

We have also taken steps to change the partnership funding rules to enable more surface water schemes in our new £5.2 billion flood defence programme. Approximately 34% of the projects in the new investment programme will help better protect properties from surface water flooding, with many being delivered by flood risk management authorities across the country.

At the Autumn Budget 2021 we announced a new National Infrastructure Commission study, to report by November 2022, on the effective management of surface water flooding in England. This will assess the current approaches to managing surface water and consider the role of a range of interventions including both traditional built infrastructure and nature-based solutions.

Under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, lead local flood authorities (unitary authorities and county councils) have responsibility for local flood risk management. This means ensuring risks of flooding from surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses are identified and managed as part of a local flood risk management strategy.