Almost 9,000 staff have quit the Environment Agency following real-terms cuts and low morale, according to data.
The figures, released on Monday (25 March), reveal the staggering leaving rates of staff at the agency.
Since 2016, 8,836 workers have left, which all but wipes out the government’s recent recruitment drive.
The Environment Agency faced a real-term cut each year between 2017-2019 and again, between 2021-2023.
Following the first round of cuts, 1,988 workers left the agency in 2017/2018, leaving a record turnover rate of minus 1,076 staff.
In that year, the agency employed around 10,000 people, meaning an estimated one in five staff left.
Since 2019, there were two consecutive years where the leaving rate was higher than the joining rate at the agency. Between 2020-2022, there was a deficit of 649 staff.
Last year, complaints of low pay, understaffing and low-morale surfaced from Environment Agency staff.
In particular, their emergency response teams said they were stretched too thin to protect communities from environmental dangers.
The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats, which said the agency had become "a leaky bucket of low-morale".
The party's environment spokesperson, Tim Farron said: “Communities are left to suffer from floods and sewage in their rivers because Ministers slashed the Environment Agency to the bone.
"They have overworked and underpaid staff, because the environment has never been this government's priority."
