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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent flooding in urban areas.

Protecting all communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. The new Government has established a Floods Resilience Taskforce, a key commitment that marks a new approach to preparing for flooding and working between national, regional and local Government, including the devolved administrations, and flood risk partners.

The Government is investing over £1.25 billion in 2024/25 to build and maintain flood defences to scale up national resilience including in urban areas and is strongly committed to requiring standardised sustainable drainage systems in new developments.

We need to see sustainable drainage systems in more developments; to designs that cope with changing climatic conditions, deliver wider water infrastructure benefits and help tackle our water pollution problems. We also need to ensure that appropriate adoption and maintenance arrangements are in place.

The responsibility for local flood risk management falls to lead local flood authorities. They do this in partnership with highways authorities and water companies.

Water and sewerage companies in England must prepare, publish and maintain Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans. They will help water and sewerage companies better plan for extreme weather, such as flooding, and take the actions necessary to mitigate these current and future risks over the next 25 years.