The figures were revealed while Gloucestershire was back on alert

Provisional figures show a cut from �45.5m this year to �40m next year for Environment Agency flood funding.

The agency said the figures were "indicative only" and funding quotas would be formally agreed next month.

The proposed cut has been criticised in Gloucestershire, badly hit last summer and at risk of more floods this month.

The provisional figures have been released by the region's Flood Defence Committee.

There is more funding on the horizon in the next two to three years Roy Stokes, Environment Agency

The affected region includes some of the worst-hit areas during the flooding which hit large parts of England in the summer of 2007, including Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

Councillor Julie Girling, Gloucestershire County Council's lead cabinet member for the environment, said: "This is a disgrace.

"Despite this county suffering some of the worst flooding in living memory in the UK, we will actually have the money government spends on flood protection cut."

Robust programme

The money will come from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

It is allocated by the Environment Agency for major flood defence works and waterways maintenance.

Worcestershire was also badly hit in last summer's floods

Roy Stokes, the agency's regional asset and investment planning engineer, said the allocation was for the whole of the region, not just for Gloucestershire and was just one strand of funding for flood defences .

"There is more funding on the horizon in the next two to three years," he said.

"What we've got to do is position ourselves in a spot to make use of those funds and make sure our capital programme is robust.

"Last year we had three or four capital schemes going, and that's why people are looking at the two figures and thinking we're better off last year than this year."

A spokeswoman for Defra denied that the lower figure amounted to a cut in flood funding.

"Spending is at record levels now and will rise again from �600m this year to �800m a year by 2010/11.

"The amount spent in any region in different years will depend on whether funding has been sought and how proposed projects score in terms of priority compared with others across the country, " she said.

"This is the only fair way to operate and we have a responsibility to deliver maximum benefit for taxpayers? money."