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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what Natural Flood Management projects are currently funded by the Environment Agency within Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency; what their total value is; and what evidence has been gathered on their effectiveness in reducing flood risk for downstream properties.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Anglian Eastern Regional Flood Coastal Committee has a Local Levy funding stream for Risk Management Authorities to support delivery of Natural Flood Management (NFM) projects. Successfully funded projects within the constituency include:

• Parham NFM £65,800
• Camp Green Farm, Debenham £75,000
• Crows Hall, Debenham £69,722
• Elm Farm, Debenham £75,000

Further bids within the constituency are under review. Evidence on the effectiveness of NFM measures has been compiled through national research programmes, into the Natural Flood Management Evidence. This provides an evidence base to help assess the likely flood risk reduction benefits that NFM can deliver.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what proportion of the capacity required to meet the 47GW solar target by 2030 will come from (a) rooftop installations, (b) brownfield and previously developed land and (c) greenfield development; and what steps he is taking to prevent the greenfield element falling disproportionately on high-quality agricultural land.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government has not set discrete targets for rooftop and ground-mounted solar by 2030.

However, modelling suggests that, even in the most ambitious scenarios, only up to 0.4% of UK land (0.6% of agricultural land) would be devoted to solar in 2030.

Planning guidance makes clear that, wherever possible, developers should utilise brownfield sites. Where the development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, lower-quality land should be preferred. Each project is subject to a rigorous planning process, in which any impact on land use or food production is considered.