Natural flood defences, such as allowing trees to fall into rivers, have protected homes in Somerset from the torrential rain brought by Storm Angus. The success came as it was revealed that natural ways of cutting flood risk have no current government funding, despite ministers repeatedly backing the idea.

Heavy rains saw the rivers above the village of Bossington rise rapidly on Monday, but the 100 homes placed at risk avoided flooding. The catchments of the rivers, all part of the National Trust’s Holnicote estate, had natural flood prevention measures put in place in 2013.

The trust’s Nigel Hester, who managed the project, said it had been a close call but thinks the natural flood protection saved the homes. “We were hit really hard and it got very close,” he said, with water rising to within inches of the top.

“I would say we were storing in excess of 20,000 cubic metres and if you added that to what was going downstream, it must have made a big difference.”

The natural measures included allowing trees to fall into the rivers to slow water flow, blocking old drainage channels on the hills and using fields to temporarily store water. The project, which cost just £160,000 in capital works, cuts the flood peak by 10% and protects £30m of property.

In April the results of a £500,000 tree-planting project showed it had helped the Yorkshire town of Pickering avoid last winter’s floods. A cross-party committee of MPs concluded earlier this month that natural ways of stopping floods must be a key part of protecting the nation as climate change intensifies rain storms.

But freedom of information requests from Friends of the Earth revealed on Monday that there is no government funding for natural flood protection, despite the environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom, stating in late October: “I fully support natural defence initiatives such as planting trees, which can slow the flow of water.”

Guy Shrubsole at Friends of the Earth, said: “Holnicote shows what can be achieved by working with nature to reduce flood risk, for very little money. Communities fearing flooding deserve better - it’s time the government’s warm words were matched with hard cash.”

Daniel Johns, an official government adviser at the Committee on Climate Change, said funding could be given as soon as Wednesday, in the autumn statement. He tweeted: “Government has only allocated half of the £700m extra floods money announced in 2016 Budget … can expect autumn statement to allocate some to NFM [natural flood management].”

Artificial pool, which is part of the floods defences at National Trust Holnicote Estate, Exmoor, Somerset. Photograph: Nigel Hester/National Trust

A Defra spokesman said: “We’re committed to better protecting the country from flooding and natural flood management plays an important role in our strategy. We’re spending a record £2.5bn on flood defences to better protect 300,000 more homes by 2021 and many of these projects are already using natural flood management measures.”

The government was also criticised on Tuesday after railway lines to the south-west were cut off after flash flooding, a type of flooding not considered as part of the government’s National Flood Resilience Review.

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, said: “The review was set up to report so that immediate measures could be taken to protect infrastructure against flooding this winter.

“It was originally due for publication in June but was delayed until August, leaving less time for implementation. But more importantly, the review ignored the threat from surface water flooding, against the advice of experts who were consulted.”

Ben Bradshaw, the Labour MP for Exeter, said: “There have been lots of grandiose promises in recent years – following previous severe flooding and the rail line dropping into the sea in Dawlish – of investment to tackle this. Very few if any of these promises have so far come to fruition.”