Our flood defences are improving

Sir: In your coverage on the recent flooding (2 July) you referred to a "leaked" memorandum to Environment Agency managers warning of budget cuts. In fact, this was a published planning document, sent to regional flood defence committees and agencies such as Natural England, outlining the challenges we face in our flood-risk management activities in the future. This long-term planning is essential for prioritising our work and dealing with the unavoidable impacts of climate change and was based on a prudent estimation of resources. Given the Secretary of State for the Environment's announcement on 2 July of a significant increase in flood-risk management funding, we will now reassess this planning scenario.

We have done a lot with the funding we have, and made significant progress, as the National Audit Report states. In the past seven years, we have created defences that protect 100,000 homes in flood plains, as well as dramatically increased those receiving flood warnings and greatly improved flood mapping and forecasting. Although some flood defence systems are not in the condition that we would like, this does not mean people are at an increased risk. Hardly any floods are the result of failure of flood-defence systems. The recent floods were caused by very extreme weather events - against which few defences, or indeed drains, would be proof.

BARBARA YOUNG

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, BRISTOL