In the Chancellor's spending review last June, the EA suffered even more cuts.
A prophetic article in The Guardian in October 2013, warned of the damage though cuts would make to the EAs ability to manage flooding.
// When the chancellor announced his spending review in June, it was clear that the Environment Agency's future was not rosy. But its staff were shocked to learn on 10 October that the cuts would translate into approximately 1,400 job losses.
Senior managers will work out the details of which services will be cut on 14-15 October and put their proposals to the agency's board on 17 October for endorsement.
Although we do not know the details, one thing is clear: the Environment Agency relies on a complex web of interacting functions and activities to provide its services to the public in England.
This is true for routine activities and its incident response role. A cut in one function will not just affect the specific environmental outcomes associated with that funding stream.
Let's look at the agency's best-known service – flood risk management. It would be quite easy to assume that if your house isn't in a floodplain you don't have to worry about the £12.5m cut in flood management revenue over the next two years. But the knock-on effects will be felt in other spheres of the environment.
The teams who manage flood defences also carry out river maintenance, including weed cutting and de-silting. This enables flood flows to be conveyed away, enhances the river's ecology and supports fish stocks. The teams provide wider incident response too – containing river pollution or aerating watercourses to prevent fish deaths from low oxygen levels. So cutting flood risk funds will inevitably affect the health of our rivers and Britain's largest participant sport, angling.
But what if flood risk management funding was protected and the cuts fell more heavily on those who regulate waste industries, for example? It is obvious that the quality of life for many communities would be affected if waste crime was un-policed or waste management sites lacked control.
The UK's world-class flood warning service relies on staff from all functions to provide an out-of-hours service. These include waste management or contaminated land experts – all experienced and competent in providing the flood warning service.
From radioactive waste management to bathing water quality and water resources management, the Environment Agency relies on all functions and activities to support each other, and wherever the cuts fall, the effects will be felt across the organisation's services and across the country. //
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2013/oct/16/environment-agency-cuts-spending-review-impact
So if anyone should resign over the floods, it should be George Osborne.