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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve flood defences in North West Leicestershire constituency.

The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. This investment includes a record £5.2 billion capital investment programme, a £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme, £170 million for economic recovery from flooding and over £30 million of funding for flood incident management.

In the £5.2 billion capital investment programme, funding is consistently distributed across the country wherever the risk is greatest and the benefits are highest. The Environment Agency administer this funding to maintain flood and coastal risk management (FCRM) assets across NW Leicestershire and is responsible the management of flood risk from watercourses designated Main River. They complete routine maintenance on assets with support from partners/contractors and this programme includes regular vegetation management, blockage removal and conveyance work to keep watercourses clear.

Packington was impacted by flooding in September 2023 and the Environment Agency are working with Leicestershire County Council (LCC) to assess what improvements can be made locally, such as improved flood warnings, property flood resilience (PFR) and natural flood management (NFM) mitigation measures.

A further 63 properties in the constituency were affected by flooding during Storm Babet in October 2023, and 43 impacted by Storm Henk in January 2024. In the current national 6-year programme, more than £0.5 million of government investment is planned by the Environment Agency to support schemes led by LCC at Breedon on the Hill, Diseworth & Long Whatton. Again, a variety of PFR, NFM and other flood alleviation measures will be utilised, aiming to better protect more than 60 properties.

The Environment Agency has also improved local flood modelling information and used this to work with developers to reduce flood risk in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.