Two of DEFRA’s biggest agencies will slash their spending by £689m over the next four years.

Natural England and the Environment Agency will both be required to make hefty savings, DEFRA has confirmed.

The department has published the budget allocations for DEFRA and its arms length bodies for the next financial year.

Indicative allocations for each of the remaining years of the Spending Review period have also been published.

Natural England will see its annual budget reduced from £197.1m in 2010-11 to £155.1m in 2014-15.

This will generate total savings of £98m over the four years compared to spending remaining at 2010-11 levels.

The Environment Agency will see its annual budget – including for flood management – reduced from £828.9m in 2010-11 to £652.2m in 2014-15.

This will generate savings of £591.4m over the four years.

Overall for flood and coastal erosion risk management, DEFRA expects to spend at least £2.1bn over the next four years.

The department said the exact budget for flood and coastal management was still being finalised.

But it said the expected final figure would be at least £2.16bn – an average of £540m a year.

This was approximately 8% less than the amount spent by DEFRA over the previous four years – an average £590m a year.