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 expand the Flood Resilience Scheme to households which (a) have been affected outside named storms and (b) are at risk of flooding in the future.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences.

Included in this programme, the Environment Agency is working proactively with local authorities to deliver Property Flood Resilience (PFR) projects, where it is cost beneficial to do so, in areas where PFR is the best solution for reducing flood risk. The EA’s PFR programme is focused on reducing risk to those households and businesses at the highest risk.

Separately, we continue to support those who were affected by last year’s Storms Babet and Henk thought the PFR grant scheme, which can provide up to £5000 for eligible households and businesses to install PFR measures.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of construction apprenticeships.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government has an ambitious plan for re-building Britain, delivering 1.5 million homes in England in this Parliament.

Around 5,000 more construction apprenticeship places will be made available per year by the 2027/28 financial year thanks to an £140 million industry investment to get Britain building again.

32 new Homebuilding Skills Hubs will deliver fast-track training in critical areas such as bricklaying, groundwork, and site carpentry, to boost housebuilding and drive forward the government’s growth mission.

Found: Blake; Chris Coghlan; Bobby Dean; John Glen; John Grady; Dame Siobhain McDonagh; Lola McEvoy; Dr Jeevun Sandher

Found: present: Dame Meg Hillier (Chair); Dame Harriett Baldwin; Rachel Blake; John Glen; John Grady; Dr Jeevun Sandher

Found: ; Chris Coghlan; Bobby Dean; John Glen; John Grady; Dame Siobhain McDonagh; Lola McEvoy; Dr Jeevun Sandher

Found: East) Dame Siobhain McDonagh (Labour; Mitcham and Morden) Lola McEvoy (Labour; Darlington) Dr Jeevun Sandher

Found: Blake; Chris Coghlan; Bobby Dean; John Glen; John Grady; Dame Siobhain McDonagh; Lola McEvoy; Dr Jeevun Sandher