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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 24 January 2023 to Question 123903 on Flood Control: Finance, what assessment her Department has made with the Environment Agency of the potential impact of inflation on the delivery of flood defence infrastructure programmes; and if she will publish that assessment.

The Government is investing £5.2 billion in the 2021-2027 flood and coastal defence investment programme to better protect properties and communities across England. In April 2020, amendments were made to the Partnership Funding rules including updating payment rates to account for inflation.

We regularly review the impact of inflation over the six-year programme. Higher than expected inflation has caused challenges to delivery of all infrastructure programmes, including the floods capital programme; for instance, costs for materials and contractor fees have increased. Many projects have a contingency in their budgets that can help, and some costs can be managed across the programme.