Investment in flood defences should rise substantially to keep up with climate change is the message that the Environment Agency Board will hear at a meeting today.

"The new international scientific assessment leaves no reason for doubt or fudging about climate change - it’s real and happening now," Chairman of the Environment Agency, Sir John Harman said. "We need to invest more in adapting to climate change and defending communities against flooding. If we leave vulnerable communities undefended, they end up paying the price in damage to property and risk to life and limb. It’s cheaper and better to invest in flood defences rather than deal with cost and misery."

The major assessment of flood risk, climate change and investment by the Foresight programme, Future Flooding, defined the need for "a compound increase in flood management expenditure of between £10 million and £30 million per year… So, for example, in 20 years, the annual expenditure would be between £700 million and £1.1 billion, compared to £500 million today".

Spending on river and coastal flooding in England and Wales was just over £438 million in 2005-6.

Pointing out that the flood defence schemes built by the Environment Agency reduce expected future flood damage by at least six times more than they cost and often far more, Sir John Harman added, "Analysis of the economics shows that the flood defences we build are terrific value for money. But it also means there are dozens of flood defence schemes that we don’t have the resources to undertake that would reduce damage by many times more than they cost.”

The Environment Agency emphasised that increasing investment on flood defences is not about imposing additional burdens on the public, but about reducing the overall costs that managing flood risk imposes on the economy and wider society.

By using resources more cost-effectively to prevent flood damage, rather than pay for repairs and clearing up, investment in flood defence a better deal for society.