Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to mitigate travel disruptions caused by flooding in Surrey Heath constituency.

The Government recognises that flooding can have a devastating impact on people, businesses and communities, as well as causing disruption to all road users. The Government is working at pace to accelerate the building of flood defences through a new Floods Resilience Taskforce and is investing £2.4 billion to better protect people and communities across the country.

Surrey County Council is the local highway authority for Surrey Heath. For the 2025/26 financial year, the Government is providing Surrey County Council with £32.4 million for local highway maintenance, which is an extra £8.5 million compared to 2024/25. Funding allocations can be found on gov.uk.

In addition, the Department is working with the UK Roads Leadership Group’s (UKRLG) Adaptation, Biodiversity & Climate Board to provide guidance to local highway authorities on how to reduce the mitigate the impacts of flooding on local roads. A recently published UKRLG-commissioned report, Emergency Preparedness, Response & Recovery, considers the lessons learned from extreme weather events, such as flooding, and makes recommendations for Government and local highway authorities on improving resilience.