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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release entitled Deprived communities to get new flood defences faster, published on 14 October 2025, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of deprivation on flood risk.

As part of the Government’s Plan for Change, we are investing £4.2 billion over three years (2026/27 to 2028/29) to construct new flood schemes and maintain and repair existing defences across the country.

On 14 October 2025, following consultation, the government announced major changes to its flood and coastal erosion funding policy. The reforms will make it quicker and easier to deliver the right flood defences in the right places, optimise funding between new floods projects and maintaining existing defences, and will ensure that deprived communities continue to receive vital investment.

Areas of deprivation face particular challenges in preparing for and recovering from the impacts of flooding. This is why a minimum of 20% of FCERM investment will go to the 20% most deprived communities and a minimum of 40% to the 40% most deprived communities combined over both the next three and ten years.