Homes left vulnerable to flooding by failure to fix defences

In a highly critical report, MPs said London was left more vulnerable to flooding than it should have been during this summer's record rains.

Although the capital escaped the worst of the deluges, thousands of properties across south and west London were flooded on 20 July.

The downpours also led to road closures and severe disruption on transport networks, with 25 stations closed at one stage.

The report from the influential public accounts committee said that less than half the "high risk" flood defence systems in the Thames region were maintained in the condition they were supposed to be in.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "No system of flood defences can provide one hundred per cent protection against flooding.

"However, that's far from saying we should be content with defences whose condition is not the best possible.

He added: "The problem is that the condition of flood defences in England and Wales has not greatly improved over five years despite an enormous 40 per cent increase in funding.

"Over half the high-risk systems, such as those protecting urban areas, are in a condition below the official target and some defences are in a poor condition."

Experts have estimated that up to 80 per cent of the flooding last summer was caused by the failure of urban drainage systems to cope with the volume of rainfall.

Barbara Young, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, said: "Our systems and defences were tested to the limit this summer by the floods that affected many parts of the country.

"Despite facing some of the biggest downpours ever recorded, 99.8 per cent of our flood defences performed as they were built to do.

"We estimate that they protected more than 100,000 properties from being flooded.

"Our experience is that less than one per cent of floods are caused by failure of flood defences."