ENVIRONMENT AGENCY MUST FOCUS ON HIGH RISK AREAS - HUHNE

12.00.00am GMT Fri 15th Jun 2007

The Liberal Democrats have called for maintenance of Britain's flood defences to be a top priority, following a National Audit Office (NAO) report showing that only 61% of defences have been maintained to their target conditions.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:

"With global warming leading to higher sea levels, it is crucial to maintain Britain's flood defences properly.

"The Environment Agency has not been helped by last year's flood budget cut, thanks to Defra's inability to run the Rural Payments Agency properly.

"Cutting funding to flood defences is a completely false economy given the threats from rising sea levels and extreme storms. Fewer than half of high risk flood systems protecting urban areas have been maintained adequately."