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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on (a) farming and (b) flood funding for the remainder of this Parliament.

Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.

Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities, which is why we set up a Flood Resilience Taskforce to provide oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season. Across England, we will invest £2.4 billion over the next two years to improve flood resilience, by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.

Longer term funding decisions as regards funding for farming and floods will be made at the next Spending Review.