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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect coastal towns from flooding.

This Government is committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring flood and coastal erosion risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future.

Delivering on the Plan for Change, the Government is investing at least £10.5 billion by 2035/6 to construct new flood and coastal schemes and repair existing defences. This funding will better protect nearly 900,000 properties. Between April 2024 and March 2026, around £667 million is being invested into protection from sea flooding, tidal flooding and coastal erosion.

We delivered 151 schemes in our first year in Government and have redirected £108 million into urgent flood and coastal defence maintenance.

The Environment Agency (EA) has a coastal resilience team who operate at a national level. The team are supported by operational coastal specialists located in EA area teams around the coast of England who work closely with coastal local authorities to ensure that coastal flooding and erosion is managed in a coordinated way.