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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made a cost estimate of the potential economic damage of a future flooding event in Lowestoft.

Coastal Partnership East is partnership of three local authorities responsible for part of the Norfolk and Suffolk coastline (East Suffolk Council, North Norfolk District Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council), including Lowestoft. Coastal Partnership East made an estimate of the potential economic damages from future flooding events in Lowestoft. This was completed as part of a business case for a new barrier at Lowestoft submitted in April 2023, prepared by Coastal Partnership East using standard Environment Agency guidance and methodologies.

This estimated the future economic damages from tidal flooding, without the investment proposed in the business case, to be approximately £150m over the next 100 years. The economic damages from river and surface water flood risk was approximately £50m over 100 years.