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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to help protect rural communities in Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency from flooding.

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.

In the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency, the Environment Agency (EA) monitors river levels, working with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA), to engage areas that receive flood warnings and flood alerts and review these regularly.

The EA carries out maintenance on the main rivers running through this constituency to ensure that the rivers’ conveyance can be maintained during periods of heavy rain.

Upstream of Batford, the EA recently completed a Flood Storage area at Houghton Regis to limit flows, after heavy rain, through Luton and down the River Lee catchment. An updated hydraulic model of the Upper Lee has been completed, covering the east of the constituency from Harpenden to Wheathampstead. The EA supports HCC LLFA to build resilience to surface water flooding in Harpenden town centre. The EA is also engaging with the public to offer advice and guidance on watercourse maintenance and flood-related matters to the community of Astrope.