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 his Department's press release entitled Water investment to unlock growth in East of England, published on 13 March 2025, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of a Bedford to Milton Keynes waterway on (a) local and (b) national economic growth.

The Government recognises the wide range of benefits brought by our inland waterways and is supportive in general of projects to restore and develop them, including where they form part of wider growth plans.