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 Executive Summary of his Department's policy paper entitled Flood and coastal erosion risk management: An investment plan for 2021 to 2027, published on 29 July 2021, what steps his Department is taking to support the implementation of flood defence projects; and whether he expects all projects to be delivered on time.

We have inherited a floods investment programme which is behind schedule due to the impacts of inflation, the covid pandemic and skills and labour shortages.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. We will also launch a consultation of the existing floods funding formula to ensure that we get the greatest impact from our funding, with the new approach expected to be brought in from April 2026.

The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be agreed by the Environment Agency over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.