4. What additional allocations will the Minister make to the climate change portfolio to aid local authorities like Carmarthenshire County Council in supporting communities affected by flooding? OQ57730

Welsh Government has an emergency financial assistance scheme to provide special financial assistance to local authorities affected by serious emergencies like flooding. We have not yet received any requests to open the scheme following the recent storms. 

My constituency, and communities in my constituency, like those of my fellow Members, have been affected consistently over the past few years by the phenomenon of more numerous and more serious storms. Carmarthenshire County Council, led by Plaid Cymru, of course, has been proactive in terms of supporting those communities in providing compensation and practical assistance, but there is general frustration, Minister, regarding their ability to provide the preventative investment, and to take those mitigation steps with regard to flooding, particularly because we're talking about rural areas along the banks of the Teifi and the Tawe. They don't always meet the criteria in terms of the number of residents that would unlock the investment that is required. So, will the Welsh Government be investing widely in flood prevention schemes so that we can have fair play, not just in terms of urban Wales, but also in terms of rural Wales, as this phenomenon worsens, unfortunately?

Yes, thank you for raising this, and, of course, as a result of the co-operation agreement that we do have with Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Government is investing an additional £24 million revenue over the next three years and a total of £102 million capital up to 2024-25 to help fulfil our programme for government commitments in respect of flood defences. And, of course, this work includes building new flood assets, maintenance of existing flood and drainage infrastructure, and development of future schemes, natural flood management and flood resilience measures for properties, as well as mapping and modelling and awareness raising. This will provide additional protection for more than 45,000 homes.

I will ask my colleague the Minister with responsibility for climate change, and hence flooding, to consider the points that you've raised in respect of eligibility criteria. I've had in preparation a list of schemes that are planned or under way in Carmarthenshire, and some of them do have fewer properties in them as a result of trying to be responsive, really, to the needs of particular communities and ensure that rural communities aren't disadvantaged. But I'll ask my colleague to look at that, and I will have a conversation about it as well. 

During the committee inquiry that we held into the Welsh Government's response to the February 2020 flooding and other times when Carmarthenshire and other constituencies have been flooded, the committee report published in 2020 highlighted that the level of revenue funding meant that authorities were a long way away from being fully prepared and resilient, and that authorities received the same level of revenue funding regardless of the flood risk within their own area. That cannot be right. So, our committee made a clear recommendation that the Welsh Government's approach to revenue allocation for flooding should take account of current and projected future flood risk in each local authority area. On Monday, the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change clarified that the allocation of future years' revenue based on current or future flood and/or coastal erosion risk is something that they could consider. So, Minister, would you clarify why revenue allocation still does not take into account flood risk to communities, such as Carmarthenshire and other areas, despite our clear committee recommendation? Diolch. 

The criteria of spend for flood-risk schemes is slightly outside my area of responsibility and expertise, so I'd better ask my colleague to write to Janet Finch-Saunders so that she gets an accurate answer.