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 has taken to ensure that water companies invest in flood mitigation.

On 13 September, the Government issued a strategic policy statement to Ofwat. This set out clear priorities for Ofwat to secure the water industry’s long-term resilience to flooding, drought, and other risks, and to protect vulnerable customers. The policy statement makes clear that we expect Ofwat to challenge companies to assess the resilience of their systems and infrastructure against flooding and take proportionate steps to improve resilience where required.