The government needs to invest now to combat the threat posed by flooding caused by climate change, the Environment Agency Board has stated.

The Board cited the recently report by the Foresight Programme, Future Flooding, which defined the need an increase in investment against the danger of flooding by between £10 million and £30 million annually.

The chairman of the Environment Agency, 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," he added.

The Agency argued that flood defence schemes save at least six times as much money in the long-term than they actually cost to construct.

A recent report by the Association of British Insurers concluded that climate change could increase the annual costs of flooding in the UK almost 18-fold by the 2080s, leading to potential losses from river, coastal and urban flooding of more than £22 billion.

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Redundancies 'can cost over £16,300' per worker
• Helpline for businesses launched
• Over third of small firms fear closure in 2009
• Small firms' profits 'wiped out by corporation tax'
• Scots business school gets training grant