© Steve Parson/PAEnvironment Agency workers lay sandbags onto river defence barriers next to the River Thames on Osney Island in Oxford. The EA is facing cuts to its budget and has to reduce staff.
"Massive" and ongoing cuts to the budget of the department of environment, food and rural affairs mean its ability to respond to emergencies such as flooding is in danger, according to a report by MPs published on Tuesday.
"Recent flooding events reinforce our concerns about cuts to the Defra budget. It is a small ministry facing massive cuts," said Anne McIntosh, Conservative MP and chairman of the Efra select committee. "Ministers must clarify how further budgets will impact on ... the ability of the department to respond to emergencies."
She added: "It is remarkable that the current flood defences have held against the force of the substantial and sustained recent battering."
Heavy rain and huge waves caused further flooding and damage on Monday, following rainfall last month that made it the sixth wettest December since 1910. Environment secretary Owen Paterson, who chaired the eighth meeting of the government's Cobra crisis response committee on Monday, said extreme weather since the start of December had caused seven fatalities and flooded over 1700 properties in England. Over 1m properties have been protected by flood defences, Paterson said, but criticism of cuts in flood defence spending is intensifying as the flood waters rise.
Year-on-year spending fell by over a quarter when the coalition took power in 2010 and, despite partial U-turns since then, real-terms spending will be significantly lower at £546m in 2015-16 than the £646m spent in 2010-11. In July 2012, the Guardian revealed that almost 300 shovel-ready flood defence projects which had been in line for funding had not been built due to budget cuts.
Paterson told MPs on Monday: "Flood management is a real priority for this government. It has a vital role to play in protecting people and property from the damage caused by flooding." He described criticism of flood defence budget cuts as "chuntering" and "blather" and said "difficult decisions" had been forced on ministers by the "dire economic circumstances" left by the last Labour government.
The government's own scientists have stated that the biggest impact of climate change on the UK is rising flood risk. But spending remains well below the level needed to keep pace with the rising risk, according to the Environment Agency (EA), the frontline flood defence body funded by Defra. McIntosh noted that the EA is set to lose 1700 jobs by October, on top of 1150 jobs lost since 2009: a total of 23% of the workforce. The Efra report said Paterson had failed to set out how Defra's budget cut of over a third will be implemented.
Paul Leinster, the EA's chief executive said: "The EA has to save money and reduce staff numbers, like the rest of the public sector. We are looking to protect frontline services and our ability to respond to flooding when it occurs." In November he told trade magazine ENDS the new round of cuts were "going to be painful. Flood risk maintenance will be impacted."
The trade union Unison, which represents some EA staff, said on Monday: "Making so many skilled workers redundant will seriously affect the EA's ability to cope with future disasters. It is a disgrace that the government is happy to put cost cutting before public safety and protecting family homes. Ministers can't have it both ways, praising the sterling work of members in the EA in one breath, and in the next breath announcing further damaging cuts."
© Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesSevere flooding of the Thames brings swans on to a caravan park at Chertsey, Surrey, on Wednesday.
The Efra report also criticised lack of transparency over the new "partnership funding", where a portion of central government spending on flood defences is replaced by money from local authorities and the private sector. So far £148m has been pledged up until 2015. In 2012 it was revealed that less than 4% of this funding came from the private sector but Defra now refuses to say how much is from the private sector, citing "commercial confidentiality". MPs state in Tuesday's report: "We are concerned about the small amounts of private sector funding secured to date".
Guy Shrubsole, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "Protecting British households from the destructive impacts of climate change is the ultimate public good; for government to slash protection with no guarantee of businesses picking up the tab instead is utter neglect. This policy isn't even treading water - it's sinking."
The Efra report, scrutinising the whole Defra budget, concludes: "In the last year Defra has had to respond to floods, horsemeat contamination, and ash dieback. Its ability to respond to emergencies such as these must be protected." It also notes low morale at the department, which rates 13th out of 17 major Whitehall departments, with just 22% of staff believing Defra management "have a clear vision for the future".
Challenges facing Defra in 2014, accroding to the Efra report, include the badger cull, proposals on biodiversity offsetting and the introduction of common agricultural policy changes and plastic bag charging.
George Eustice, environment minister, told the Today programme on Tuesday: "We within Defra have prioritised spending on flood defence in difficult times, when budgets across government are having to be cut. We've maintained spending on flood defence specifically and we are going to spend around £2.3 billion between 2015 and 2021, which will be an increase in real terms."
... Cameron's and Osborne's homes where under threat from the flooding. That's probably the only way that the DEFRA budget would be increased to the level that it should be.
They're only concerned about the effect they're having, when it comes back to bite them, other than that this government is the most uncaring, selfish, egotistical and downright obnoxious ( and I'm being charitable when I say that ) that I've ever know.