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 is taking to improve and maintain flood defences along the Severn Estuary.

During this financial year the Environment Agency will invest £380,000 in maintaining flood defences and structures on the Severn Estuary in Gloucestershire. An additional £2 million will be invested to repair flood defences and structures damaged during the winter floods.

The Severn Estuary Flood Risk Management Strategy identified a need for around £58 million of funding in Gloucestershire over the next 100 years to maintain or improve flood defences in the Estuary.