Guardian: The government has been forced to backtrack on its claims about flood defence spending, admitting the figure has gone down rather than up.
The environment minister Dan Rogerson conceded on Thursday night that spending had fallen to 2.34bn in the current four years compared with 2.37bn previously. The environment secretary, Owen Paterson, had previously claimed the Tory-led coalition was spending "more on flood defences than any previous government".
The Environment Department had also said...