Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department estimates will be spent on flood prevention in Ribble Valley constituency over the next five years.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government plans to invest £642,338 in the Ribble Valley constituency to deliver the Whalley and Billington Surface Water Improvement Scheme over the next five years. The table below summarises planned Government investment for each of the five years.
2016/17 | 0 |
2017/18 | 0 |
2018/19 | £30,000 |
2019/20 | £83,780 |
2020/21 | £528,558 |
These figures represent all funding that the Environment Agency currently estimates is allocated to the Ribble Valley constituency.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
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 increase flood prevention in Earby.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government is investing £100,000 on a flood modelling study of Earby Beck to investigate options to reduce flood risk, with its results expected in October 2017.
The Environment Agency is carrying out works to repair and reduce the risk of blockage of the Victoria Clough culvert. Detailed design work is now complete and costs are estimated at £550,000.
The Environment Agency has enhanced flood resilience in Earby by recruiting new flood wardens to support the development of a community flood plan and help coordinate the community response to future flood events. The Environment Agency is also investigating the installation of further rain gauges in the area to provide greater intelligence and accuracy to the flood warning service.
Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department estimates will be spent on flood prevention in Lancashire over the next five years.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government plans to invest £101.05 million to deliver flood and coastal risk management schemes in Lancashire over the next five years.
The table below indicates the Environment Agency’s estimates for planned investments on such schemes in Lancashire for each of the five years. These figures include the Whalley and Billington Surface Water Improvement Scheme.
| Government Flood Defence Grant in Aid (£) | All sources of partnership funding contributions, excluding Local Levy (£) | Total (£) |
2016/17 | 41,461,210 | 425,000 | 41,886,210 |
2017/18 | 33,804,373 | 205,000 | 34,009,373 |
2018/19 | 10,325,608 | 65,000 | 10,390,608 |
2019/20 | 7,129,560 | 50,000 | 7,179,560 |
2020/21 | 8,333,116 | 0 | 8,333,116 |
The Anchorsholme Coast ProtectionScheme is nearing completion and the Rossall Coastal Defence Improvement Scheme, Wyre Dune and Beach Management Scheme, Morecambe Wave Reflection Wall, Fairhaven and Church Scar Coast Protection Scheme have started or will commence construction shortly. The Government will invest around £77 million on these schemes, better protecting 24,700 homes from flooding in Lancashire.
The Environment Agency is currently working with partners in planning a major flood risk management scheme in Preston and South Ribble, which will reduce the risk of flooding from the river Ribble and the sea to at least 2,000 homes. This scheme is expected to start construction in 2020.
Asked by: Bob Stewart (Independent - Beckenham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many flood prevention schemes have been put in place in Beckenham constituency since 2015.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Environment Agency has not put any flood prevention schemes in place in the Beckenham constituency since 2015. However between 2013 and 2015, the Government has invested £155,000 on capital works, better protecting 12 properties from flooding, and £450,000 on maintenance works along the River Ravensbourne.
Between April 2016 and March 2021, the Government plans to invest a further £924,000 on flood risk management schemes in the Beckenham constituency, better protecting around 200 properties from flooding.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many grant-in-aid applications for flood prevention measures for properties in West Lancashire were received by her Department in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2016-17; and how many such applications were (i) successful and (ii) unsuccessful in each of those years.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Property resilience funding is offered to households affected by flooding to improve resilience during future flood events. This is not covered by Grant in Aid which funds flood resilience projects or schemes managed by local Flood Response Management Authorities.
No property resilience funding was applied for during 2014/15 in West Lancashire.
The numbers we have are running totals. In 2015/16 58 applications for funding were made in West Lancashire. 18 of these were approved by end of the financial year.
By the end of the financial year 2016/17, 180 applications for funding had been received in total in West Lancashire. 148 have been approved. 32 applications had not been confirmed as accepted by the 7th February 2017. This was the last report run.
Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what budget allocation they have made to fund new woodland planting in England.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Woodland planting schemes supported by Countryside Stewardship (and earlier Rural Development Programme schemes) for planting in 2016-17 and 2017-18 have budget allocations of £3.3m and £8.3m respectively.
The Woodland Carbon Fund has a budget allocation of more than £19 million for the remainder of this Parliament.
The Woodland Creation Planning Grant’s budget allocation is drawn from the £1m Forestry Innovation Fund.
We have allocated up to £3.2m over 4 years to the Trees for Schools programme. This will give hundreds of thousands of children across England a chance to plant saplings in their school grounds and communities as part of a Government-backed scheme to give free trees to schools in partnership with the Woodland Trust.
Countryside Stewardship offers incentives for small scale woodland creation. The normal minimum application area is 3 hectares with a minimum block size of 0.5 hectares; or 1 hectare and 0.1 hectares where woodland creation is part of a suite of measures for water quality or flood prevention.
Countryside Stewardship also provides support for existing woodlands as small as 3 hectares, including preparing a woodland management plan and support a range of woodland management activities and capital items. Additional support is available for woodland tree health
Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to offer incentives to small scale forestry schemes in future.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Woodland planting schemes supported by Countryside Stewardship (and earlier Rural Development Programme schemes) for planting in 2016-17 and 2017-18 have budget allocations of £3.3m and £8.3m respectively.
The Woodland Carbon Fund has a budget allocation of more than £19 million for the remainder of this Parliament.
The Woodland Creation Planning Grant’s budget allocation is drawn from the £1m Forestry Innovation Fund.
We have allocated up to £3.2m over 4 years to the Trees for Schools programme. This will give hundreds of thousands of children across England a chance to plant saplings in their school grounds and communities as part of a Government-backed scheme to give free trees to schools in partnership with the Woodland Trust.
Countryside Stewardship offers incentives for small scale woodland creation. The normal minimum application area is 3 hectares with a minimum block size of 0.5 hectares; or 1 hectare and 0.1 hectares where woodland creation is part of a suite of measures for water quality or flood prevention.
Countryside Stewardship also provides support for existing woodlands as small as 3 hectares, including preparing a woodland management plan and support a range of woodland management activities and capital items. Additional support is available for woodland tree health
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) flood prevention work has taken place in areas prone to flooding by the River (i) Ribble, (ii) Lune, (iii) Darwen, (iv) Wyre and (v) Yarrow, (b) flood prevention work is planned in 2017, 2018 and 2019 at those locations and (c) the cost is to the public purse of such work in those locations in (A) 2016, (B) 2017, (C) 2018 and (D) 2019.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Environment Agency’s six year flood and coastal risk management programme 2015-2021 can be found at the following web address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes.
There are 17 flood prevention schemes planned in the programme on the named rivers over the next three years.
The estimated cost of the works on the named rivers totals £34,700,051. A breakdown can be found below:
A 16/17 £9,152,821
B 17/18 £18,195,397
C 18/19 £7,068,053
D 19/20 £283,780
These figures include a combination of capital Grant in Aid and partnership funding.
The Environment Agency’s maintenance schedule can be found at the following web address:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/river-and-coastal-maintenance-programme
The Environment Agency and its predecessor bodies have worked with partners to undertake a range of flood prevention work in the catchments of the Ribble, Lune, Darwen, Wyre and Yarrow. This includes the completion of flood and coastal risk management schemes as well as maintenance and flood recovery work.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the level of investment required in resources and skills to undertake necessary flood prevention measures.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Environment Agency is delivering a £2.5 billion 6 year investment programme to improve flood and coastal erosion risk management, including asset maintenance. The Environment Agency is recruiting an additional 200 skilled staff having reviewed the resources required to deliver the programme.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to (a) St Helens, (b) Merseyside and (c) the UK for flood prevention and remediation in each year since 2010.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government has invested £2.5 billion over six years on improving flood defences to better protect over 300,000 homes. This is a real terms increase in capital investment – up from £1.7 billion in the last Parliament and £1.5 billion between 2005 and 2010.
The table below summarises the total capital investment on flood and coastal risk management for St Helens, Merseyside and England for each year since 2010.
| Total capital investment on flood and coastal risk management (£k) | ||
St Helens (Metropolitan Borough) | Merseyside | England | |
2010/11 | 318 | 4,501 | 363,985 |
2011/12 | 188 | 1,329 | 321,900 |
2012/13 | 377 | 466 | 323,219 |
2013/14 | 10 | 78 | 380,217 |
2014/15 | 0 | 206 | 507,884 |
2015/16 | 0 | 0 | 412,952 |