Environment Agency blows £13million on expenses for staff leading to claims flood bosses are 'out of control'

  • The figure is up more than £3.8 million, or 43 per cent, on the previous year
  • Just half of the rise could have covered the cost of river dredging that may have saved the Somerset Levels from flooding
  • The agency spent  £2.9 million on hotels, £8.8 million on train travel and £1.1 million on meals for staff working away from home

By Paul Cahalan

PUBLISHED: 17:00 EST, 22 March 2014 | UPDATED: 18:50 EST, 22 March 2014

The Environment Agency has been accused of spiralling ‘out of control’ after it was revealed its staff claimed £12.8 million in expenses last year.

The figure is up more than £3.8 million – or 43 per cent – on the previous 12 months.

Just half of that rise could have covered the cost of river dredging that may have saved the Somerset Levels from flooding– work the beleaguered quango decided not to carry out.

Environment Agency staff claimed £12.8 million in expenses last year. Just half of that rise could have covered the cost of river dredging that may have saved the Somerset Levels from flooding (Moorland pictured)

Environment Agency staff claimed £12.8 million in expenses last year. Just half of that rise could have covered the cost of river dredging that may have saved the Somerset Levels from flooding (Moorland pictured)

A Freedom of Information request revealed that in the year to March 2013, the agency spent  £2.9 million on hotels, £8.8 million on train travel and £1.1 million on meals for staff working away from home.

Bryony Sadler, whose Somerset home was flooded for three weeks, said: ‘The agency wrecked our homes and lives and we are getting nothing back. The expenses are inexcusable... they need to be justified.’

 

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Ian Liddell-Grainger, the  Tory MP for Bridgwater in Somerset, said: ‘It is simply typical of the agency. It’s a quango out of control and it has lost all public confidence.

‘It has become an evangelical environmental group when it suits them, the rest of the time [staff] appear to be drinking expensive champagne in hotels.’

Lord Chris Smith is the chairman of the Environment Agency
Ian Liddell-Grainger, the Tory MP for Bridgwater in Somerset, said: 'It is simply typical of the agency. It's a quango out of control and it has lost all public confidence'

Ian Liddell-Grainger (right), the Tory MP for Bridgwater in Somerset, said: 'It is simply typical of the agency (chairman Lord Chris Smith pictured left) . It's a quango out of control and it has lost all public confidence'

The agency said hotel expenses included bills such as meeting room hire; and that it would recoup some money from its ‘external partners’. A spokesman said: ‘One in five days in 2012 were in flood and we had to move our teams across the country to respond to numerous incidents.’

In the financial year which is just about to end, the agency has already spent £10 million, but the figures are incomplete.

More than 7,000 homes were flooded this winter, with insurers’ last week saying they expected to pay out about £446 million in compensation.  Dredging stretches of the rivers Tone and Parrett before the floods would have cost the agency about £1.7 million.

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Is this why the Ambulance and Emergency Services in the North East of the UK are being starved of Funding ? So that flooded property and the so called "Environment Experts" can live like Whitehall squanderers ? Property in the Sarf is more valuable than LIVES in the North East ??? What does Cameron think ? Just after the Floating Voter is he ???

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The lack of dredging was not a one off pennypinch or underhanded economy! The whole thing was based on misguided green policy and put into place deliberately . This makes it a professional crime committed by unprofessional zealots who should be punished for their disastrous efforts resulting from wildly erroneous views regarding the public good.

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Yet another case of snouts in the trough ! no doubt the poor workforce will get hammered and the clowns in charge will walk away and some other member of the idiot brigade will take over.

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Any agency or department paid for by the good old tax payer is out of control BBC, local authority, NHS etc the list goes on. But sadly only those at the top of the tree how often do you hear that council cuts are the fault of government but when do you see a cut to the perks. Check out any town hall fire brigade NHS staff car park and look at the company cars that that some of the senior staff drive. Add fancy phones iPads etc and where are the cuts to the unnecessary items ?? Please let me know.

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I think in view of what has happened over the last 6 months it's entirely understandable that expenses to this organisation are up, however, had someone spent money on routinely dredging the rivers, flooding would have been very much reduced & they wouldn't have spent quite as much . What we do need now as a matter of course, is a plan put in place to dig out those rivers that need it & return to routine dredging. What that means is we need an organisation made responsible to take control & answerable to the people.

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They are employed by the government, of course hey are going to waste taxpayers money, it comes with the territory.

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Seems about right.......mean to go on as they started, its the Socialist gene...you know.....spend everybody elses money except your own.......goes down a bomb in Islington and Primrose Hill.

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Just another bunch of government Hogs feeding of the taxpayer!!

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The Environment Agency IS just another quango and a ruddy poor one at that. Time to break it up and turn the running of the countryside back over to people that know what they are doing - unlike the present bunch of self-serving desk jockeys.

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Of course some expences are legitimate but surely not to this extent.Why is it that the organisation of a department grabs more of the budget than it spends on doing the job it should be doing.If there is an environment agency I would expect that the lions share of the budget be spent on protecting and maintaining the actual environment.And that includes the human needs as well as the flora and fauna.The right people are needed in these departments, it would seem that all depends on who you know and academic certification ,what is really needed is people with common sense,talent and dedication .

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