Floods – Church Commissioners’ Written Answer

On 25th February 2014, Second Church Estates Commissioner, Rt Hon Sir Tony Baldry MP, answered a written question from Anne McIntosh on floods.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the right hon. Member for Banbury, representing the Church Commissioners, what work the Church Commissioners are undertaking to support flooded communities and farmers.

Sir Tony Baldry: Following my comments to the House on 13 February 2014, Official Report, column 1010, the Church Urban Fund have launched a ‘Flood Appeal Fund’. This follows highly successful funds set up in 2000 and the year 2007 where the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England co-ordinated the collection of money to help support flood victims and businesses.

By working alongside the Church of England’s infrastructure the Church Urban Fund are already present in a large number of communities and aim to strengthen existing resource and capacity, to be more effective and sustainable for the long term.

The money raised in this fund will be available to victims of the floods across the country in both urban and rural areas. It is hoped the Church Urban Fund will be able to support those in most need as it did when the last major floods hit the country in 2000 and 2007. The Church Commissioners are also aware that the Dioceses in the south-west of England are supporting locally focused funds which have been set up to provide assistance to the flood affected families and businesses in the south-west.

(via Parliament.uk)