Flood defences: Agency wants more funding

The Environment Agency is also calling for an extra �10.8m to pay for prevention and flood damage to historic towns and villages hit by the worst floods in 400 years.

Environment minister Beverley Hughes told the Commons the rules would be "much more robust" in discouraging construction on low-lying riverside areas and flood plains.

But she warned that any measures designed to defend against floods could only reduce the risk and never eliminate the problem entirely.

"Developers will be required to fund both the construction and future maintenance of flood defences that may be necessary to protect such developments," she said.

"We will also be setting target standards which must be made for defences to protect new houses."

Climate change

Miss Hughes said the proposed new rules would prove the government had responded to the plight of people affected by the natural phenomenon.

Anne McIntosh, Tory MP for the Vale of York which suffered extensive flooding, raised the issue in the Commons on Wednesday.

She urged the government to "act now after such a long delay to prevent future occurrences of this scale".

"How can the property owner protect land from acts of God when the impact of natural hazards is compounded by the actions of the authorities?" she said.

Last autumn more than 6,500 homes were swamped when rivers burst their banks.

A report from the cross-party environment select committee - published in December - warned climate change could make flooding much more common in the UK.

Some 1.85 million homes and 185,000 commercial properties and five million people are now at risk from flooding in Britain.

The Environment Agency is asking local authorities in the north of England for a 63% increase in funding for flood protection schemes to avert another similar disaster.

Emergency repairs to existing defences damaged by the floods will cost about �2.8m, while �7.8m has been added to the Agency's existing �15.1m capital programme for flood alleviation schemes.

This will allow plans to be speeded up and extended and for flood warning and forecasting to be improved.