In April the results of a 500,000 tree-planting project showed it had helped the Yorkshire town of Pickering avoid last winter’s floods, and other projects, such as at Holnicote in Somerset, have shown promise as cost effective ways of cutting flood risk. A Defra spokesman said: We’re committed to better protecting the country from flooding and natural flood management plays a significant role in our strategy. Were spending a record 2.5bn on flood defences to protect 300,000 more homes better by 2021 and many of these projects are already using natural flood management measures.

UK government not funding natural flood prevention methods – The Guardian