UK must be prepared for flood risk

Sir Michael Pitt, who has published his Government-commissioned report into last summer's devastating floods, said ministers must set out how they would rapidly improve the UK's resilience to such events.

He said while it was not clear if the flooding in June and July last year was the direct result of climate change, the UK must prepare for an escalating flood risk.

Sir Michael was commissioned to undertake the study after flooding across Yorkshire and Humberside, the Midlands and the West Country which claimed 13 lives, forced thousands from their homes and cost £3 billion in damage.

The 92 recommendations by Sir Michael included measures to improve forecasting, better protect the public against the dangers of dams bursting, change building regulations to make homes more resilient to floods and better co-ordinate different authorities and organisations to deal with flooding.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn promised an "action plan" in the autumn and said legislation would be brought forward in the next parliamentary session to act on many of the review's recommendations.

He also gave details of how some of the £34.5 million promised for implementing the Pitt Review would be spent, including £5 million to develop plans for managing surface water - which caused much of the problems last year - in the highest priority areas.

Sir Michael said the £34.5 million was not enough, although this funding and £800 million by 2010 promised by the Government for flood defences were heading in the "right direction".

While he said there was much greater awareness of the risk of flooding than there had been before the floods hit in June and July 2007, there was "a great deal more to be done" to prepare the country.

Sir Michael also said more than 4,000 households were still out of their homes a year on, a figure that was "unacceptably high" and a matter for concern.