The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
Communities secretary Eric Pickles has found himself at the centre of a storm entirely of his own making after attempting to blame the Environmental Agency’s (EA) chronically over-stretched, exhausted and rapidly dwindling number of staff for some of the country’s flooding woes.
Pickles, whose “grandstanding” is said to have infuriated environment secretary Owen Paterson, accused the agency of giving ministers bad advice. EA chair Lord (Chris) Smith responded by saying government budget cuts and rules on spending had limited the agency’s capabilities.
This was borne out by unions. “There is no additional money for flood defences, works programmes will be cut and 1,500 staff will still be made redundant by October 2014,” said Prospect deputy general secretary Leslie Manasseh. He added that “the people who are working day and night to prevent flooding – our members in the Environment Agency – will see their revenue budgets cut from £275m in 2010 to £226m in 2014/15. Who will maintain these defences if the agency's revenue budgets are cut?” UNISON national officer for the EA, Matthew Lay, said: “Environment Agency staff have been working around the clock in difficult circumstances for more than seven weeks now. Continued funding cuts will see staff levels at the Agency reduced by a quarter since the Coalition came to power in 2010. This sort of reduction compromises the ability of the Environment Agency to respond to emergencies as there is simply not enough staff on the ground to manage a prolonged incident. What we need is long-term investment in the Environment Agency.” Justin Bowden, GMB national officer for EA, said: “Chris Smith has come out fighting at last in defence of the Environment Agency and its exhausted and overstretched staff and laid the blame squarely where it belongs - at the door of central government and their the penny wise and pound foolish cuts.”
