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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to consult with local authorities on a long-term plan for dealing with future climate change events causing (1) extreme heat, and (2) flooding.

We are consulting local authorities on the development of the UK's third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3). This is our long-term plan for building a more climate resilient country and our response to the latest assessment of UK climate risks, which is due for publication in 2023 and will run until 2028. This programme will address the advice contained in the third and latest assessment of UK climate risk (CCRA3) from January 2022, which included 61 climate risks and opportunities to the UK, including those related to overheating and floods.

We are primarily consulting local authorities through the Local Adaptation Advisory Panel, a Defra-hosted forum focused on climate adaptation issues that brings together central and local government, as well as via the Local Government Association. We are also engaging with groups like the Environment Board of the local representative organisation the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT).

This work builds on previous central-local government collaboration on the development of previous NAPs, including NAP2. NAP2, published in 2018 and running until 2023, includes actions for local government