Flood defences 'lack maintenance'

Homes and businesses in England may be at risk of flooding because the Environment Agency is not doing enough, a watchdog has said.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said the agency had not met its target of maintaining 63% of the country's flood defences in peak condition.

MPs called on the agency to explain why less than half of England's high risk defences were found in peak condition.

The watchdog found large regional differences in the proportion of defences in high risk areas which were at peak condition - from 18% in the South West to 60% in the South.

There were also big differences in the money spent on maintaining the defences.

The NAO report said the agency had taken on greater responsibility for flood risk in England, including the management of important rivers.

The agency had protected more people by improving the standard of flood protection for 100,000 homes between 2003/04 and 2005/06, the watchdog said.

However, it said since 2001 the general condition of defences had not improved significantly.

The all-party committee of MPs, the Public Accounts Committee, said more money should go towards "protecting towns and cities, rather than empty fields".

The Environment Agency has estimated that it would need an extra £150m a year to bring all flood defence systems up to their peak condition.

MPs must be challenged to explain where this much-need extra investment is going to come from, before they can offer any justification for an intention to approve the EU budget deal and vote billions of pounds extra a year to a wasteful body like the EU.