Lord Smith: flooding budget cuts put UK at the mercy of extreme weather

#Energy Outgoing Environment Agency chair warns of false economy of failing to improve protection and speaks frankly on Owen Paterson, the greenest government and fracking safety

Slashed flood defence budgets have left the nation at the mercy of the wilder weather that climate change is bringing, according to the outgoing chair of the Environment Agency.

Lord Chris Smith, who steps down in July after a sometimes stormy six-year stint, said reduced funds and rising risks were an inconvenient truth and that failing to improve flood protection in the face of more frequent and extreme events was a false economy.

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