Year of extremes shows cuts to UK flood fund were short-sighted, say critics

This is South Devon: Almost 8,000 homes and businesses were flooded in 2012, as the UK was battered by repeated heavy rain, storms and floods. Defences protected almost 200,000 properties, but with spending on such measures falling at a time when floods are predicted to get worse with climate change, the Government has come under fire for cutting the flooding budget.

There are hopes that 2013 will bring drier weather after England's wettest year on record, which affected thousands of families and businesses England and Wales experienced ten separate flooding events between April and December after widespread drought gave way to the wettest summer in a century, with unusually high rainfall totals and river levels around the country.

Parts of Devon and Cornwall saw more than 24 hours of continuous rain at the end of April. In late June, Honister in Cumbria saw eight inches (200mm) of rainfall in one day, the Environment Agency said.

...But spending on flood protection measures fell in the last financial year – the first full year since the spending review – from £354 million on new projects in 2010-2011 to £259 million in 2011-2012. The amount spent on maintenance also fell, from £172 million to £156 million last year.

The devastation repeatedly wrought on the country prompted the Treasury to provide another £120 million in November for defences over the next couple of years, focusing on places where they would have the greatest economic benefit...

The flooded watermeadows west of Clyst St. Mary have been lightly frozen in the first real cold night of the 2009-2010 winter. The ice was beginning to make cracking noises as it started to thaw and the water was going down. Shot by Jonathan Billinger, Wikimedia Commongs via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license