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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to compensate local authorities in areas at high risk of flooding that have yet to flood for maintaining emergency flood defence measures for a prolonged period.

In cases of localised flooding, we expect local authorities to have well established contingency measures in place and both the existing budgets and resources to respond and support their local communities.

The emergency Bellwin scheme was activated after Storm Ciara on 10 February and Storm Dennis on 17 February 2020. The scheme was activated for qualifying areas in West Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire which have seen significant impacts following Storm Ciara. It has also been activated for qualifying areas in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Worcestershire and Herefordshire which have seen significant impacts following Storm Dennis. Under the scheme, local authorities dealing with the flooding can apply to have 100% of their eligible costs, above a threshold, reimbursed by the government. This could be for items including rest centres, temporary accommodation and staff overtime.