PM orders review into flood damage

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He said the Government would increase the amount of money spent on flood and coastal defences across the country from £600 to £800 million.

Beleaguered local authorities will receive extra funding to pay for emergency work to deal with the chaos.

During his tour of affected regions, the PM was briefed by the emergency services' multi-agency team - Gold Command, made up of heads of police, fire, ambulance, local authorities and other groups co-ordinating the response to the floods.

Speaking at his first monthly briefing with the press, he said: "Like every advanced industrialised country, we are coming to terms with the issues surrounding climate change.

"We are going to have to look at drainage, surface water, as well as river water, and what we are going to be able to do in the future in relation to that.

"We will have to invest in coastal defences, flood defences and of course drainage in infrastructure in the years to come and that's why we are setting aside more resources to do so."

Describing the impact of Friday's weather, he said: "What we had was a month's rainfall in some places in an hour. It was something we have got to look at in the future."

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said nothing could have guarded against the amount of rainfall in recent days.

Mr Brown said he had full sympathy for those affected by the flooding, including those who have been evacuated from their homes or had operations cancelled.