Kerry McCarthy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department spent on cleaning rivers and waterways in each of the last five years; and what estimate she has made of the level of such funding in each of the next five years.

Rory Stewart

Over the past five years, Defra has made significant investment to protect and improve the water environment through a number of different mechanisms. These include funds for local improvement projects, Countryside Stewardship, Catchment Sensitive Farming, Grant-in-Aid to the Environment Agency (EA), and funding for flood risk alleviation schemes which have wider co-benefits for the water environment.

Defra’s funding is just one contribution. The EA estimates that around £5 billion per year is invested across the public, private and voluntary sectors just to protect our waters from deterioration in the face of challenges of population growth and climate change.

Funding in future years is subject to the Government’s Spending Review.