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 build flood defence capabilities in Southampton Test constituency.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Southampton City Council (SCC) have developed proposals for a flood defence scheme on the western bank of the lower River Itchen. This proposal will need approximately £100 million to be progressed. Although some Flood Risk Management Grant funding is available, the scheme will not progress unless further investment can be identified. The EA will review the status of the scheme, to see if the funding situation has changed, after the current Government consultation on flood defence funding for England has concluded and is implemented from April 2026.

Alongside SCC’s Renaissance Vision, the EA will continue to support the Authority in developing suitable flood defence projects. The existing Southampton Coastal Strategy will be reviewed alongside revised flood model data by 2028 which will better identify future flood risk needs to support a growing and thriving city.

Flood defence funding has previously been invested in property flood resilience to 55 properties in the St Denys area and for a Southampton schools surface water resilience study.