Cost of fighting flooding is soaking up English councils’ cash, ministers warned

District councils in low-lying areas say they have cut day-to-day services such as bin collections to fund pumping stations

The costs of preventing major floods caused by extreme weather and excessive rainfall have fuelled a growing financial crisis among district councils in low-lying areas of England, ministers have been warned.

Districts in the east of the country say they are having to cut day-to-day services such as bin collections to meet dramatic and unsustainable rises in payments levied to fund pumping stations used to protect communities from flooding.