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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the number of properties at risk of flooding in winter 2022-23.

Around 5.5 million homes and businesses in England are at risk from flooding and coastal erosion. That risk can be from one or multiple sources of flooding including rivers, the sea, surface water, rising groundwater or overwhelmed drains and sewers.

The Environment Agency (EA) estimates there are: 2.8m properties at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea, 3.2m properties at risk of surface water flooding, and 660,000 properties at risk of flooding from rivers, the sea and surface water.

In addition, between 122,000 and 290,000 properties are estimated to be in areas at risk of groundwater flooding - this may include properties also in areas at risk of surface water flooding.

The EA continue to build and repair flood defences to make the nation more resilient to flooding, delivering on the government’s record £5.2 billion investment in flood and coastal risk management. This has already resulted in more than 35,000 properties being better protected from flooding and coastal erosion since April 2021.