Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a £40m spending package to help rebuild the UK's battered flood defences in Yorkshire and the north of England damaged by Storm Eva, the most recent storm to cause major flooding across the north of England on Boxing Day.
The latest funding pledge, which was announced yesterday, comes in addition to the extra £50m in regional funding already promised by the government to help the region recover from weeks of intense flooding over the festive period.
Cameron insisted the extra funding would help prepare the UK's flood defences for further rainfall.
"We are already spending £280m over the next six years to protect thousands of houses from flooding in Yorkshire as part of our £2.3bn investment to protect 300,000 houses across the country," he said in a statement.
"But now more than £40m will be spent to fix those defences overwhelmed by the record rainfall we've seen in recent weeks and to make them more resilient to further bad weather."
However, the latest funding was dismissed as a "sticking plaster" by opposition figures.
Shadow Environment Secretary Kerry McCarthy described the funding as a "short-term, sticking plaster approach", while Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the measure was a "short-term fix" for the problem.
Meanwhile, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said Cameron's response to the recent floods has been "wholly inadequate".
"We urgently need to not just consider flood defences, but land use across catchments, plus the protection of urban areas through sustainable drainage and similar management schemes, while ending the construction of new housing estates in vulnerable areas," she said in a statement.
One quarter of the £40m package will be reserved for the Foss Barrier, which protects the city of York and was overwhelmed by water during Storm Eva. The remaining £30m will be spent repairing defences - including flood barriers and pumping equipment - on surrounding waterways including the Wharfe, Calder, Aire and Derwent.
The government admitted in a statement that the total bill for the repair work is likely to exceed £40m.
Flood warnings remain in place today across large swathes of Scotland and England, with a significant risk of flooding for parts of South West and North East England, the government said.
The news comes after a leaked document published by the Observer on Sunday revealed ministers were warned in November that spending cuts could leave 240,000 households facing a "significant risk" of flood damage.
The paper, which was drawn up by the Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA), warned flood defences were likely to fail as weather events become more extreme, and criticised the Environment Agency for cutting spending on flood defences.
However, Defra said the document was out of date as flood defence spending plans had been updated in the Autumn Statement.
The government has repeatedly argued that it is increasing spending on flood defences. But critics, including the government's independent climate change advisers, have warned the UK is still not spending enough on improving flood resilience given flood risks are expected to increase in coming decades.
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