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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she will take steps to require the Environment Agency to resume responsibility for the (a) inspection, (b) cost and (c) maintenance of (i) main rivers, (ii) the Avon, (iii) Brinkworth Brook, (iv) Olivemead Drain, (v) Dauntsey Brook and (vi) the Bourne; and if she will bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Environment Act 1995 to ensure that main rivers are maintained as critical infrastructure funded through public spending.

I fully recognise the importance of flood risk maintenance. The Government has committed to redirecting £108 million in 2024/25 and 2025/26 into urgent flood and coastal defence maintenance to halt the decline of flood asset condition following years of under investment.

Watercourse management responsibilities fall to different bodies. Riparian landowners are required to maintain watercourses, under common law, while the Environment Agency (EA) uses its permissive powers to undertake maintenance on main rivers to manage flood risk.

The EA prioritises maintenance funding rigorously and focusses on those areas and activities which deliver the greatest overall benefits for people and property, including reducing flood risk and securing value for money.

The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative changes to amend the Environment Act 1995.