Asked by: Lord Stone of Blackheath (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the correlation between (1) the release of floodwater from the Jubilee River channel as occurred in 2014 and 2024, and (2) subsequent levels of floodwater and property damage, and the extent to which vulnerable local people were unable to receive social services.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Jubilee Flood Relief Channel is part of the Maidenhead Windsor and Eton Flood Alleviation Scheme (MWEFAS) that reduces the risk of flooding to approximately 3,000 properties in Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton. The Jubilee Flood Relief Channel always has some water flowing through it. In flood conditions, we split some of the water away from the River Thames through the Jubilee. The Jubilee provides extra space for this water before it rejoins the River Thames at Datchet. It is not designed to reduce flood risk to communities upstream or downstream of the scheme. It does not adversely impact communities downstream. We operate weir gates at Taplow to control the amount of water being split into the Jubilee Flood Relief Channel. As the flow in the River Thames increases, we open the gates gradually in small increments to allow water to flow through the channel.
The Environment Agency reviews the performance of their Flood and Coastal Risk Management assets to ensure they continue to perform as designed to protect homes and communities. Following flooding in 2003, river modelling was completed to re-examine any impacts from the Jubilee Flood Relief Channel on downstream communities. The results showed that there would be very little difference in the flows at Windsor, and the downstream water levels, with and without the Jubilee Flood Relief Channel being operated.
In February 2014 over 1000+ properties flooded internally across the Thames area, with the greatest numbers of these of these in the Lower Thames in Berkshire and Surrey. The flooding was very prolonged and lasted from February 2014 through to March, with many communities impacted along the Thames, such as at Datchet, Wraysbury, Egham, Chertsey, Staines and communities further downstream through Surrey. There were no reported properties flooded internally in Windsor in 2014.
In January 2024, Storm Henk resulted in heavy and widespread rainfall falling on saturated ground in a short space of time. There had been flooding in some local areas in December 2023 primarily affecting tributaries of the River Thames. The total volume of flow which passed down the Jubilee flood relief channel appears similar to 2014. The Environment Agency is currently receiving and collating reports on the number of properties that may have been impacted. Current information indicates around 300 properties may have flooded internally across the Thames Area.
Following a significant flood incident, the Environment Agency reviews all areas of incident response including partnership working to understand impacts and actions to better prepare for future events. We are currently undertaking this following the January 2024 flooding.
Our Environment Agency online portal Citizen Space holds a suite of useful information relating to the Jubilee River including videos and fact sheets and can be located under Maidenhead Windsor and Eton Flood Alleviation Scheme.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 impact of ineligibility for the frequently flooded fund on communities which are frequently flooded.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In July 2022, the Government announced the creation of new ring-fenced £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance (FFA) as part of the Government’s record £5.2 billion investment programme into flood and coastal erosion schemes.
In April 2023, the Government announced the first 53 communities in England to benefit from the FFA. These communities have been allocated a total of £48 million, better protecting more than 2,300 households and businesses across the country.
The allowance is designed to ensure funding is appropriately targeted, benefitting communities where 10 or more properties have flooded twice or more in the last 10 years. These communities are often smaller and can face barriers to access funding due to the relative complexity and cost of building flood defences.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a list of areas which lack (a) local authority resources and (b) private sector contributions to manage flood risk.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing a record £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. Local authorities, which deliver some of these schemes, benefit from this investment.
Local authorities are also resourced to fulfil their statutory duties and have access to a range of revenue streams including the Local Government Finance Settlement. The local government finance settlement for 2024-25 will make available over £64.7 billion next year, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion or 7.5% in cash terms on 2023-24. The Government announced an additional £3 million in grant funding for 2024/25 to support local authorities severely impacted by the increase in levies from internal drainage boards. The majority of local government funding is un-ringfenced, recognising that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major service pressures in their local areas.
The Government is conducting an assessment of local flood and coastal risk compared to local authority spend. This work is ongoing and is expected to conclude by March 2024.
The Government’s £5.2 billion investment is distributed across the country where the risk is highest and the benefits are greatest. Around 60% of flood and coastal erosion projects are fully funded by this investment. Where the full costs of the project are not covered, contributions are needed from partners, the local community and other organisations. This provides a fair and consistent approach for allocating GiA and securing wider benefits where others stand to benefit from a defence scheme.
As of June 2023, the current capital programme had already secured £128 million in private sector contributions – more than double the £55 million secured across the whole of the previous six-year programme (2015 to 2021).
Government has also provided additional funding to schemes which meet specific objectives, to ensure that they can progress. For example, 23 projects have benefitted from additional government investment, on top of the £5.2 billion programme, through the £170 million Economic Recovery Funding announced in 2020.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with the Environment Agency on increasing the number of flood defence projects.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government announced in March 2020 a record £5.2 billion investment over 6 years in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. Since April 2021, over £1.5 billion has been invested in flood defence projects across the country and over 67,000 properties have been better protected from flooding through over 200 completed schemes (as of September 2023).
The programme of schemes that make up the current investment programme is reviewed and refreshed annually as projects progress. This allows for flexibility to manage change and introduce new schemes or urgent works if necessary. Ministers are working with the Environment Agency to review the programme in the light of the impacts of inflation. More information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department is providing to improve flood defences.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is investing a record £5.2 billion over six years in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England.
In addition, at the last spending review the Government increased funding for maintaining existing flood defences by £22 million per year, bringing the total to over £200 million per year.
Our investment in flood defences has seen over 600,000 properties better protected from flooding since 2010, including over 71,000 since 2021.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 the UK Government Resilience Framework adequately reflects the needs of communities that are repeatedly affected by flooding.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s long-term flood and coastal erosion risk management Policy Statement, published in 2020, sets out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. It includes five ambitious policies and a number of actions which will accelerate progress to better protect and better prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion in the face of more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change.
Flooding resilience in England is a priority for Defra as part of the ‘whole of society’ approach to resilience outlined in the UK Government Resilience Framework (UKGRF). In December 2023 the Government published an implementation update for the UKGRF outlining progress to date in delivering commitments in the Framework. For example, the Government is investing a record £5.2 billion in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Capital Programme. Since 2021, over £1.5 billion has so far been invested in flood defence projects across the England, with over 67,000 properties better protected. Climate change projections are built into the design of new flood defences to make sure they are fit for the future.
On the 5 April 2023, the Government also announced the first communities in England to benefit from the Government’s £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance. These communities have been allocated a total of £48 million, better protecting more than 2,300 households and businesses.
Defra and the Environment Agency also work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to share flood risk information and identify particularly vulnerable areas. We constantly review our policies in the light of the most up-to-date evidence. This includes UK Climate Projections and the Government’s five-yearly UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to take steps to incorporate climate change projections into the UK Government Resilience Framework, in the context of flood prevention and management.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s long-term flood and coastal erosion risk management Policy Statement, published in 2020, sets out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. It includes five ambitious policies and a number of actions which will accelerate progress to better protect and better prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion in the face of more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change.
Flooding resilience in England is a priority for Defra as part of the ‘whole of society’ approach to resilience outlined in the UK Government Resilience Framework (UKGRF). In December 2023 the Government published an implementation update for the UKGRF outlining progress to date in delivering commitments in the Framework. For example, the Government is investing a record £5.2 billion in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Capital Programme. Since 2021, over £1.5 billion has so far been invested in flood defence projects across the England, with over 67,000 properties better protected. Climate change projections are built into the design of new flood defences to make sure they are fit for the future.
On the 5 April 2023, the Government also announced the first communities in England to benefit from the Government’s £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance. These communities have been allocated a total of £48 million, better protecting more than 2,300 households and businesses.
Defra and the Environment Agency also work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to share flood risk information and identify particularly vulnerable areas. We constantly review our policies in the light of the most up-to-date evidence. This includes UK Climate Projections and the Government’s five-yearly UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what flood defence measures his Department is putting in place to help protect agriculture.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farmers and land managers have an increasingly important role to play in reducing the risk of flooding and coastal erosion as we adapt to climate change, through measures such as natural flood management.
In addition to protecting homes, the flood investment programme also protects agricultural land. In our six-year record £5.2 billion floods investment programme, the amount of funding a project can attract will depend on the damage it will avoid and the benefits it will deliver. A project's impact on agricultural land is included as part of the funding calculator and attracts funding. Since 2015 we have protected over 900,000 acres of agricultural land. Approximately 40% of schemes, and 45% of investment, better protects properties in rural communities. Government assistance is sometimes provided in particularly exceptional circumstances. For example, on Saturday 6th January the Government announced farmers who have suffered uninsurable damage to their land as a result of Storm Henk will be able to apply grants of up to £25,000 through the Farming Recovery Fund towards reinstatement costs for farmers adversely affected by exceptional flooding.
There are also measures that benefit flood risk mitigation under all three components of the Environmental Land Management schemes. As announced on 4th January, farmers and other land managers will be paid for a variety of land management actions that support flood risk mitigation, including new actions to manage grasslands and arable land for flood resilience and updated actions to store flood water on agricultural land. These actions will be available from later this year, through a streamlined single application process. The first round of Landscape Recovery included a focus on restoring England’s streams and rivers: the selected projects will restore water bodies, rivers, and floodplains to a more natural state, reduce of nutrient pollution, benefit aquatic species, and improve flood mitigation and resilience to climate change. Many of the Landscape Recovery Round 2 projects that are centred around rivers are also aiming to deliver similar environmental outcomes, including flood mitigation.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the UK Government Resilience Framework at managing resilience to (a) high risk floods and (b) other flood risks.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s long-term flood and coastal erosion risk management Policy Statement, published in 2020, sets out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. It includes five ambitious policies and a number of actions which will accelerate progress to better protect and better prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion in the face of more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change.
Flooding resilience in England is a priority for Defra as part of the ‘whole of society’ approach to resilience outlined in the UK Government Resilience Framework (UKGRF). In December 2023 the Government published an implementation update for the UKGRF outlining progress to date in delivering commitments in the Framework. For example, the Government is investing a record £5.2 billion in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Capital Programme. Since 2021, over £1.5 billion has so far been invested in flood defence projects across the England, with over 67,000 properties better protected. Climate change projections are built into the design of new flood defences to make sure they are fit for the future.
On the 5 April 2023, the Government also announced the first communities in England to benefit from the Government’s £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance. These communities have been allocated a total of £48 million, better protecting more than 2,300 households and businesses.
Defra and the Environment Agency also work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to share flood risk information and identify particularly vulnerable areas. We constantly review our policies in the light of the most up-to-date evidence. This includes UK Climate Projections and the Government’s five-yearly UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to update the UK Government Resilience Framework to help improve national resilience to floods.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s long-term flood and coastal erosion risk management Policy Statement, published in 2020, sets out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. It includes five ambitious policies and a number of actions which will accelerate progress to better protect and better prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion in the face of more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change.
Flooding resilience in England is a priority for Defra as part of the ‘whole of society’ approach to resilience outlined in the UK Government Resilience Framework (UKGRF). In December 2023 the Government published an implementation update for the UKGRF outlining progress to date in delivering commitments in the Framework. For example, the Government is investing a record £5.2 billion in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Capital Programme. Since 2021, over £1.5 billion has so far been invested in flood defence projects across the England, with over 67,000 properties better protected. Climate change projections are built into the design of new flood defences to make sure they are fit for the future.
On the 5 April 2023, the Government also announced the first communities in England to benefit from the Government’s £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance. These communities have been allocated a total of £48 million, better protecting more than 2,300 households and businesses.
Defra and the Environment Agency also work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to share flood risk information and identify particularly vulnerable areas. We constantly review our policies in the light of the most up-to-date evidence. This includes UK Climate Projections and the Government’s five-yearly UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.