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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of inflation on £5.2 billion for flood defence measures announced in 2020 on what that funding will cover.

The government is currently investing a record £5.2 billion on building new and improving existing flood defences, double the value of the previous programme. Higher than expected inflation is causing challenges to the delivery of all infrastructure programmes. Defra and the Environment Agency are currently undertaking an assessment of the potential impact of the inflation on the flood defences programme.