Local Government Finance

Resilience, to use the jargon, is a question of how homes and areas can be better protected against flooding in the future. It is increasingly a feature of the way in which we wish to see the planning system used where there may be a risk of flooding. With regard to housing or other development, resilience is principally a matter of the investment that may be available for the sort of defences that can protect areas and homes. My hon. Friend will know, because he has pressed his case equally hard with Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, that we are set to increase investment in flood defences still further over the next three years, having doubled it already. That programme of work will bring a good deal of benefit in its acceleration of some important and necessary schemes. In this local government settlement, our concern is to reflect the circumstances and service circumstances of all local authorities. That is why the additional help we put in place for Gloucestershire and other areas since the summer floods has been paid alongside the funding system, but separately. That is a better and more flexible way of dealing with the matter for the future.