By Fiona Harvey, Jim Pickard and Paul J Davies, The Financial Times
A flood prevention scheme developed to protect the city of Leeds is likely to be one of the casualties of the coalition’s cuts. Potentially dozens of other flood prevention schemes could also be scrapped.
Caroline Spelman, secretary of state for the environment, told reporters on Wednesday that although the floods budget would be cut by 20 per cent, the savings would be found through efficiencies.
However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) admitted that it was certain some of the proposed flood defence projects would be cancelled.
The Coalition has reduced the budget for building new flood defences and upgrading existing ones from £335m a year to £261m a year for the next four years.
News of deep cuts to flood defences may come as a surprise given that Ms Spelman claimed during the summer that she would ensure the protection of vital spending on the key areas of animal health and flood prevention.
Sky News asked Ms Spelman earlier this month if flood spending would be cut. Her reply seemed categoric: ”No, those are all the sorts of things that I will try and protect. The maintenance of our flood defences is very important.”
George Osborne also sought to give the same impression in Wednesday’s spending review when he promised a ”major improvement” in flood defences.
The Environment Agency, which looks after flood defences, said that while schemes that were already under way would be completed, it was too early to say for definite which of the schemes not yet started would be cancelled.