To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what funding is available from (a) his Department and (b) the Environment Agency for communities for solutions to their flooding problems; and what the reasons were for the rejection of the Water 21 bid from Gloucestershire by his Department. (225436)

The Environment Agency's flood alleviation schemes are funded either through DEFRA grant in aid or from a local levy on councils by the Regional Flood Defence Committee (RFDC).

The Environment Agency aims to work with communities at risk of flooding to devise technically and environmentally feasible schemes which can be put forward to the RFDC for local levy funding.

In the Midlands region the Environment Agency is currently putting 22 candidate local levy schemes forward to the RFDC. The decision on which ones will be funded lies with the RFDC members and will include consideration of relative costs and benefits.

A number of communities have also raised their own funding towards the cost of flood defence schemes and contributions may also be available from public authority departments (such as highways), increases to parish council precepts, local fundraising events and individuals.

The Water 21 bid is promoted by the Gloucestershire Local Strategic Partnership and while the Environment Agency was a consultee it was not a funding decision maker.