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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote nature-based solutions to flooding.

The Government supports blue-green infrastructure, including nature-based solutions (NbS) to tackle flooding, and delivers it through various programmes including its flood and coastal erosion risk management programme and Environmental Land Management schemes.

The Government published an update on flood and coastal erosion resilience and investment on 14 October 2025 (written statement UIN HLWS955). This includes a commitment to direct at least 4% – or £300 million over ten years – towards NbS, the highest figure to date for the floods programme.

To achieve this, we’re removing barriers that have held back NbS projects. Including:

• removing the need for projects to show properties shifting risk bands.
• lifting the cap that limited environmental outcomes to no more than 20% of a project’s benefits.
• prioritising projects by their benefits for every £1 of government investment. NbS often attracts partner funding, boosting its score.
• widening access to flood funding by allowing more delivery partners, including NGOs and community groups. Risk management authorities remain eligible to propose projects.

These reforms will be in place for the start of the new investment programme in April 2026 and we will review progress after three years.