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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve flood resilience in rural constituencies such as West Dorset constituency.

The Environment Agency (EA) has planned engagement events with professional partners across Dorset for Spring/Summer 2026 to promote individual and community resilience. The EA works closely with Dorset Council, parish councils and flood wardens to raise awareness, share guidance and strengthen community-level resilience across the highest-risk rural areas.

The EA is delivering the Government’s flood and coastal risk management (FCRM) Investment Programme, investing £2.65 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26 to better protect 52,000 properties. A new 3-year £4.2 billion FCRM Investment Programme will start in April 2026, allocating investment where flood and coastal risk and vulnerability are greatest, using the Government’s new funding rules. This week the EA published information on schemes that will receive funding for the first year of the new Programme, between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027.