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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate the Department has made of the number of communities that remain without modern flood-defence infrastructure.

The Environment Agency (EA)’s National Flood risk assessment data and national coastal erosion risk map provides the best evidence to inform our long-term risk assessment and the development of flood mitigation strategies to protect communities from flooding.

The EA maintains over 90,000 assets, which reduce the risk of flooding to 2.6 million properties in England.

The EA is delivering the Government’s flood and coastal risk management (FCRM) Investment Programme of flood and coastal defences, investing £2.65 billion over 2024/5 and 2025/6 with a target of 52,000 properties better protected.

A new 3-year £4.2 billion FCRM Investment Programme will start in April 2026, progressing projects already in construction and new projects that are either currently in development or still to be developed.