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 prevent flooding along the River Severn in winter 2020-21.

Over the winter of 2019/20 the River Severn catchment saw some of the highest river levels ever recorded. While, unfortunately, around 1,600 properties were flooded across the West Midlands, Environment Agency (EA) flood risk management assets prevented over 14,500 properties from flooding.

Since the winter floods, the EA has been delivering its recovery programme. This is to ensure that all flood assets that were affected by significant flooding are inspected and repaired where necessary.

In the 2020 budget, the Government announced a national £120 million package to repair flood risk management assets damaged as a result of the winter floods. For the Severn corridor’s assets the Environment Agency secured £4.2 million, covering 18 projects. Ahead of this winter, EA flood risk management assets in Shrewsbury have been fully inspected. Repair work to these assets is currently ongoing. However, throughout this process the defences will remain fully operational and will function as intended, including both demountable and temporary defences at a number of locations such as Shrewsbury and Ironbridge.

As well as this asset repair work, and despite the challenges of Covid-19, the Environment Agency is continuing to deliver its annual routine maintenance programme for the River Severn. This helps to ensure any blockages or debris that may cause an increase in flood risk have been managed.