UK Government Looking At £1 Billion In Cuts For Environmental Agency - Guardian

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Environment department ministers will meet tomorrow to discuss budget crisis cuts of almost £1bn over three years, the Guardian has learned.

Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, has called them together after most sections of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its agencies failed to find sufficient savings to meet a £300m shortfall from April. The ministry is still more than £100m short despite cuts, including compulsory redundancies at one agency and generous voluntary severance payments for staff.

The crisis was precipitated by a continuing overspend, estimated at £20m, on handling European Union agricultural subsidies for farmers, and the need to set up a contingency fund after animal disease outbreaks, including the foot and mouth, blue tongue and avian flu epidemics.

For the first time cuts will be imposed on the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency. The commission is said to have agreed a 6% efficiency saving - one percentage point above the Treasury demands - for the next three years; it is now being asked for savings on top, which would hit staffing and its work on climate change, among other activities. The Environment Agency has won extra funding for flood prevention, but is asked to curb spending elsewhere.

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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,2252613,00.html