The Environment Agency (EA) has a strategic overview role for all sources of flooding, which includes surface water. This is set out in the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England (FCERM Strategy). The EA has a legal duty to review the current FCERM Strategy in 2026.

Responsibility for surface water flooding is shared across risk management authorities, including lead local flood authorities, water companies and the EA. The Government is supporting this through policy reform, investment and improved coordination. This includes enabling better rainwater management, including sustainable drainage systems, improving data sharing and supporting local strategies where surface water flood risk is greatest. A new three-year £4.2 billion Floods and Coastal Risk Management Investment Programme will also start in April 2026.

The Government is strengthening water industry regulation by increasing scrutiny, identifying failures and providing the intelligence for enforcement and remedial action. The EA is increasing compliance and enforcement activity, supported by additional funding and tougher powers, to ensure water companies meet their environmental obligations.

The Government is providing funding for upland and catchment-based management measures that help reduce flood risk in downstream communities, including in York and North Yorkshire.

A new 3-year £4.2 billion Flood and Coastal Risk Management Investment Programme will start in April 2026, where new projects will align with the strategic objectives set out within the Government’s new funding rules announced in October 2025. This will mean investment goes where it is most needed.

Upstream management of water is necessary to enable downstream defences to continue to operate effectively. The Ousewem project, funded with £6 million from the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme, will enhance upstream land management in the Swale, Ure, Nidd and Ouse catchments.

The project, together with other work, such as the Environment Agency’s York Flood Alleviation Scheme long term plan, will help identify and shape future upstream investment, and support adaptation to climate change, in collaboration with partners and landowners.

The Environment Agency regularly inspects and reports on the condition of flood risk management assets across England.

Environment Agency assets are prioritised for funding as part of the annual allocation process. Where appropriate, third-party asset owners are advised on necessary remedial action. Whilst responsibility for third party assets remains with the asset owner, the Environment Agency may by exception use Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCRM) funding to carry out maintenance or repairs where it regards this is urgent to safeguard the public.

For 2025–26, £72 million has been reprioritised from the national flood risk investment programme to maintain flood assets, benefiting around an extra 14,500 properties.

The Foss Barrier is a complex asset with an extensive inspection and maintenance regime. Around 100 days of maintenance activity are carried out each year at the Foss Barrier to inspect its condition, optimise performance, prevent failure and inform maintenance.

The properties along the historic Kings Staith waterfront are the lowest lying properties in the city and have no permanent flood wall defences due to heritage, buildability and economic reasons. Many of these properties now benefit from individual property flood resilience measures, which are an important intervention to reduce the likelihood and implications of flooding, and aid recovery in line with National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy.

In the York Flood Alleviation Programme, the average installation cost of property level protection measures is £15,000.

The Government does not hold national data on the cost of flood protection measures specifically to businesses across all areas, as costs are determined on a property-by-property basis, through approved project business cases. Where Government funding is provided, costs and any business contributions are agreed locally as part of those schemes rather than through a single published estimate.

Defra promotes tree planting in upper catchments to enhance the water environment, supported by a suite of targeted grants including the England Woodland Creation Offer, the Environment Agency’s (EA) Natural Flood Management Programme, and wider Environmental Land Management schemes such as Landscape Recovery and Countryside Stewardship. Defra is also supporting delivery of the Water Environment Improvement Fund, Water Restoration Fund and Local Nature Recovery Strategies to ensure action is directed where it delivers the greatest water quality, flood resilience, and biodiversity benefits.

Looking ahead, the EA will be scaling up investment in natural flood management interventions, including tree planting, through the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management investment programme that starts in April. This has been enabled by the Government’s updated flood funding rules with a commitment to direct at least 3% of the FCERM programme spend to standalone NFM in the first four years and 4% over a ten-year period.

Together, these initiatives contribute directly to the Environmental Improvement Plan’s commitments on increasing tree cover, improving water quality, and strengthening flood mitigation.

Tree planting can help us meet a wide range of strategic objectives, including the 25 Year Environment Plan’s commitment to limit damage to rivers and the pledge to reduce flooding through natural flood management solutions.

The England Woodland Creation Offer recognises the benefits of planting riparian buffers through specific Additional Contributions. These contributions support riparian tree planting, flood management and improved water quality.

The Government is also supporting woodland creation along rivers through the ‘Woodlands for Water’ project. This pilot project works with the Riverscapes Partnership to facilitate the creation of riparian woodland corridors in six river catchment areas.

This year we are introducing an action into the Sustainable Farming Incentive for the management of habitat strips next to watercourses. This will support the planting of trees and scrub for biodiversity, flooding and water quality benefits.

Lead Local Flood Authorities have a duty to develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy for local flood risk management in its area, and the Government is supportive of them working together to deliver shared mitigations for a wider area.

The Government has committed to reform the current approach to local flood risk planning by 2026, ensuring every area of England will have a more strategic and comprehensive plan that drives long-term local action and investment and supports a catchment-based approach. To strengthen collaboration, we will encourage flood and coastal erosion risk management activities across local authority boundaries and explore options to join up flood resilience with other responsibilities held by Mayors or Combined Authorities.

As part of the Government’s six-year £200 million flood and coastal innovation programme (FCIP), £8 million is allocated to four adaptation pathways to support work in the Thames and Humber estuaries, the Severn Valley and Yorkshire to trial and develop ways of planning ahead and making wise investment choices for the decades to come in the face of the long-term uncertainties brought by climate change. The West Yorkshire Adaption Pathway (WYAP) project is developing a community-scale surface water flood risk adaptation plan for a town in West Yorkshire. The South Yorkshire Adaption Pathway (SYAP) project aims to develop an adaptation pathway plan for South Yorkshire which will ensure that all decision-making on, and implementation of, long-term, future adaptation is as efficient and effective as possible.

Yes.

The Environment Agency counts properties flooded during all flood events, with final numbers verified by local flood authorities. Additionally, the Environment Agency looks at long term national trends, rates of optimal spend, but only calculates the economic costs of an actual flood in occasional circumstances due to the significant time and cost associated with undertaking the reports. Therefore, data is not collated on an annual basis.

Since 2010, there are costs of flood reports for the major events of winter 2013/14 and winter 2015/16. It is estimated the 2013/14 winter floods caused approximately £1.3 billion of damage and the 2015/16 winter floods caused approximately £1.6 billion of damage.

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Property Flood Resilience (PFR) covers a range of measures designed to reduce damage caused by flooding. This includes measures to keep water out, such as flood doors and barriers, and also internal changes to lessen the impact of flooding, such as hard floors and raising electrics.

A property with PFR measures may flood but suffer minimal damage because of the internal changes made. The property owner would not necessarily report this to the Environment Agency, their local authority or their insurer. Therefore, the data to answer this question is not available.

Flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes are typically designed for a 50-year lifespan, although this can vary. This figure assumes maintenance and reconditioning where required, the Environment Agency’s annual maintenance programme is available on GOV.UK.

The Environment Agency report the number of properties at risk from surface water flooding in their Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Annual Report. It is currently estimated 3.4 million properties are at risk. A number of actions are underway to help reduce this risk and improve our understanding further.

As part of the government’s £5.2billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme, funding has been allocated to hundreds of projects up and down the country to better protect people and properties from surface water flooding.

Since 2020, the Environment Agency has supported 41 lead local flood authorities to enhance local surface water flood risk mapping, following £3.5 million in grants from the government. This new mapping will provide 4.6 million people with more detailed information and enable more targeted action. The information will also be incorporated into the new National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA2) that will provide a single picture of current and future flood risk from rivers, the sea and surface water.

The Environment Agency are leading the £150 million flood and coastal resilience innovation programme where 25 local areas are demonstrating how practical innovative actions can work to improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion. More than half of these projects are looking at innovation to mitigate against and adapt to surface water flooding.

The Environment Agency’s catchment-based approach to flood and coastal erosion risk management can include work on both upland and lower catchment areas. The Environment Agency does not collect data on whether a project is in an upper catchment.

Nature-based solutions have an important contribution to play in achieving climate resilient places. The Environment Agency’s £15m Natural Flood Management programme has demonstrated the important role nature-based projects can have in helping to slow the flow and store flood waters.

A new £25 million fund for Natural Flood Management (NFM) aims to provide flood risk reduction benefits as well as wider benefits to society and nature across England. NFM measures work best when a catchment-based approach is taken, to manage the flow of water from the source of our rivers to the sea, across our towns, cities, countryside and coasts.

The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Defra’s arm’s length bodies, including the Environment Agency, on a range of issues. This includes many topics on flood and coastal erosion risk management such as the Environment Agency’s flood risk maps and models.

The Environment Agency provides the Check for flooding service giving information on flood alerts and warnings as well as a five-day forecast. The Environment Agency uses its flood warning system to directly alert those who have signed up to receive flood warnings when flooding is expected in their area. There are currently around 1.6 million people signed up to receive these warnings.

The Government announced in March 2020 a record £5.2 billion investment over 6 years in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. Since April 2021, over £1.5 billion has been invested in flood defence projects across the country and over 67,000 properties have been better protected from flooding. On 26 July 2022, the Government announced the creation of a new £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance from within the £5.2 billion programme, to support communities that have experienced repeated flooding, reducing the risk of flooding in the future. An additional investment of £170 million of economic recovery funding was provided for 23 flood defence schemes across the country that were shovel ready.

The Government is investing a further £200 million is in the Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme to help over 25 local areas to take forward wider innovative actions to improve their resilience to flooding and coastal erosion.

I will answer in a couple of ways. First, only just over £1 million of that £15 million has been drawn down, which is a sign that the amount is sufficient. Secondly, the Northern Ireland civil service has recently announced that up to £10 million has been made available to assist small and medium sized businesses, with up to £100,000 available per business. The experience of her constituents—I have the figures in front of me—shows that this Government are committed to our infrastructure being ready for the future. That is partly why we are so keen to see the Executive back, with a large package to help support the stabilisation and transformation of public services, so we can get the kind of investment she refers to.

In the absence of the Executive, this Government have made up to £15 million of support available for businesses and non-domestic properties through the reallocation of existing funding. It is for the Northern Ireland civil service and local councils to consider how to utilise the remaining funds to provide further support to businesses and non-domestic properties.

Creating climate resilient places lies at the heart of the Environment Agency’s (EA) National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England and Roadmap to 2026.

The EA is currently developing a new National Flood Risk Assessment that will provide a single picture of current and future flood risk from rivers, the sea and surface water, using both existing detailed local information and improved national data. The new risk assessment will provide a better understanding of both current and future flood risk accounting for a range of climate change scenarios.

The EA is also updating the full National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping (NCERM) dataset. The update will include coastal erosion predictions for England through this century and provide an updated assessment of residential and non-residential properties at risk. The updated NCERM will be published in 2024 and will provide the best available information on coastal erosion risk.

The Environment Agency provides the Check for flooding service giving information on flood alerts and warnings as well as a 5-day forecast. The Environment Agency uses its flood warning system to directly alert those who have signed up to receive flood warnings when flooding is expected in their area. There are currently around 1.6 million people signed up to receive these warnings.

The Environment Agency is continuously improving its flood risk data. It is currently developing a new National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA2) that will provide a single picture of current and future flood risk from rivers, the sea and surface water, using both existing detailed local information and improved national data.

The new risk assessment information will be available to members of the public through the Environment Agency’s Check for Long Term Flood Risk service.