Campaigners have urged Rishi Sunak to visit flood-hit communities and see for himself the impacts of the climate crisis as official figures show hundreds of key flood defences are in a state of disrepair in parts of England currently underwater.
Analysis of government data by Greenpeace's investigative unit Unearthed shows that in Gloucestershire 12% (175) of the county's defences were found to be in poor or very poor condition, following inspections by the Environment Agency (EA) in 2022. A quarter of vital defences in the Forest of Dean were found to be below required condition, while 16% of assets in Tewkesbury, which was repeatedly flooded in recent months, were also found to be sub-par.
