Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing a financial recovery framework for major wildfire incidents, equivalent to the Flood Recovery Framework, to provide (a) grants for affected businesses and (b) business rate relief.

The Flood Recovery Framework is unique to flooding and only activated in exceptional circumstances. No assessment has been made of the merits of establishing a similar scheme for wildfire incidents. There are a range of potential support mechanisms from across Government for local areas following significant emergency response incidents that are being explored.