Asked by: Andrew Ranger (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support dairy farmers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government paid more than £2.6 billion to British farmers, including those in the dairy sector in 2024-25, the most funding in a single financial year since we left the EU. This included funding toward Environmental Land Management schemes, improving animal health and welfare on farm and grants to drive innovation in agriculture and food production across England.
Asked by: Andrew Ranger (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the areas expected to be at risk of major flooding by 2050; and whether her Department plans to introduce measures to restrict future (a) residential, (b) infrastructure and (c) transport development in those areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In January 2025, the Environment Agency published the updated National Flood Risk Assessment. With climate change, it is estimated that the number of properties in areas at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea will increase from 2.4 million to around 3.1 million between 2036 and 2069.
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk.
Where development (be it residential, infrastructure of transport) is necessary, and where there are no suitable sites available in areas with a lower risk of flooding, local planning authorities and developers should ensure development is safe for its users for the development’s lifetime, will not increase flood risk overall and will provide wider sustainability benefits.