The Conservative government slashed the Environment Agency’s funding to tackle sewage pollution and protect the environment before leaving office, i can reveal.

The watchdog’s “environmental protection grant” funds a range of activities, including the enforcement of water companies’ raw sewage discharge permits, monitoring and incident management, as well as green finance, farm inspections, waste reform and chemical regulations.

Figures obtained by i through a Freedom of Information request reveal that the grant decreased from £152m in 2010-11 to £70m in 2018-19.