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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on formulating a flood insurance scheme for businesses.

While we have seen no evidence of a systemic problem for small businesses accessing affordable flood insurance, there is growing anecdotal evidence of problems in some areas.

We welcome the launch of British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) insurance product which will provide flood insurance for many small businesses that have struggled to access it to date. We are also working with the insurance industry and the wider commercial sector to help businesses become more resilient to flooding, preventing water entering and speeding recovery when it does. The Government published the Property Flood Resilience Action Plan in October which sets out a number of actions that the businesses community are committed to taking forward.

We will continue to work to better understand the nature and extent of this problem and what we can do to help small businesses.