Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Written Statement of 16 January 2017, on Winter Flooding 2015-16, HCWS412, how much of the £60 million in assistance from the EU Solidarity Fund has been attributed to the effect of clawback through the UK rebate.

The Commission has now proposed to the European Parliament and Council that the UK receives a notional €60.3 million in assistance (subject to approval by the two bodies). However, owing to the costs involved in making an application and the effect of clawback through the UK rebate, the overall net benefit to the UK is only estimated to be €17 million (circa £15 million). This will be further offset by a payment of £14.5 million that the UK is legally obliged to make to the EU in respect of the UK’s 2007 application (by the then Labour Government) for Solidarity Fund assistance following the serious floods that year. The UK Government is obliged to repay funding where there was ineligible spending under the Labour administration. Consequently, this funding does not offer additional support.