A local MP is heading a committee which will today be asking the Environment Agency how money allocated for flood defences has been spent.
Questions have been raised over whether the money is being used as intended - and as effectively as possible.
The Tiverton and Honiton MP Neil Parish chairs the Environment Food and Rural Affairs select committee which is today meeting senior representatives from the Environment Agency.
Its accounts show that in the last financial year it received £595 million, specified for flood defence work, but only £281 million was spent on that.
Mr Parish says his committee will be asking for details of exactly how the flood defence money is being spent.
They will also be looking into whether some of the Environment Agency's work could be done by drainage boards and local authorities.