23 OCTOBER 2004, Page 40

Cost of keeping dry

From Nicholas Bushill Sir: In her introduction to your Carbon Trust supplement of 9 October, Margaret Beckett stated that the cost to the country of flood damage was currently £1 billion per annum and could rise to £25 billion. The country should then be aware that the government is withdrawing funding for essential flood defence repairs on the east coast under the pretext of 'managed retreat'. If Margaret Beckett's figures are correct, surely it would be far cheaper for the government to keep financing the repair of existing flood defences than to let them go?

Nicholas Bus/till

Saxmundham, Suffolk