It will take all week to drain flood water from Toll Bar

The stark prediction for Bentley and Toll Bar near Doncaster was made by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn as he updated the Commons on Monday evening.

More than 300 people were still living in temporary accommodation, he said.

Doncaster council said it would take another three to four days to pump the water from homes in Toll Bar.

Mr Benn reminded MPs of the long-lasting effects of the Carlisle floods in January 2005.

"Experience from Carlisle suggests that some properties may not be habitable for many months, " he said.

Mr Benn said lessons would be learned from last week's disaster and government spending on flood defences would rise from �600m this year to �800m by 2010/11.

The water only appears to be decreasing gradually - but I want to emphasise to residents the enormous scale of this operation Martin Winter, mayor of Doncaster

Meanwhile, three severe flood warnings remained in place in South Yorkshire - two on the River Don at Bentley Moor and Thorpe in Balne and one on the Ea Beck at Toll Bar.

Doncaster Council said even more high-volume pumps have been brought in to the affected areas.

But despite firefighters from 26 services around the UK removing 346m litres of water per day, the Environment Agency estimates there is still about 1.8m cubic metres of water in the area.

Doncaster's elected mayor, Martin Winter, said on Tuesday he had been told by the agency that the Toll Bar area would take three to four more days to drain.

Mr Benn said further work was needed to look at flooding risks

Mr Winter said: "The water only appears to be decreasing gradually, but I want to emphasise to residents the enormous scale of this operation not only on the ground, but co-ordination from behind the scenes.

"We are succeeding slowly but surely in the reduction of water in Toll Bar and will soon be pumping out 240,000 litres a minute."

It was also announced that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has agreed Local Government Minister John Healey will co-ordinate the government's contribution to recovery from the recent floods.

Mr Healey said: "We want to see communities, householders and businesses return to normal as rapidly as possible.

"I have seen first-hand the effects of flooding in my own constituency, Rotherham, and last week visited homes and businesses who have suffered.

"I will make sure central government brings a relentless focus to support the local recovery efforts and ensure that all of those involved play their full part.

"This will help ensure we move from a fully co-ordinated emergency response effort to a fully co-ordinated support for the recovery effort."