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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the damage to property and infrastructure that potentially could be prevented by (a) the £80 million flood defences announced for the Humber in the National Infrastructure Plan and (b) the £1.3 billion tidal Humber defence programme currently under review.

The case for investment in flood defence schemes, including those announced for the Humber in the National Infrastructure Plan, is based on the benefits in terms of the economic damages of flooding avoided by the work. The approach follows HM Treasury’s guidance on the appraisal of central government investment options (The Green Book).

The Environment Agency will conduct a review to consider the ambitious £1.3 billion proposal put forward by the Local Enterprise Partnership and local authorities as part of its update of the Flood Risk Management Study. This will take full account of the lessons learned from the tidal surge in December 2013 and use the same nationally consistent approach to valuing the benefits of the proposals.