David Cameron has defended the government’s spending on flood defences following widespread devastation across parts of northern England.The prime minister dismissed suggestions of a “north-south divide” in investment, saying more per head was spent on flood defences in the north.

Parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester were flooded after several rivers burst their banks.

The Environment Agency has called for a “complete rethink” of flood defences.

The Met Office says areas of Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire have seen record December levels of rainfall.

‘Real anger’

A thousand homes have flooded in Leeds, but the leader of the city council, Judith Blake, said the flooding had been a “preventable disaster”.

She said the North had not received “anywhere near the support that we saw going into Somerset” – which flooded in 2014 – and there was now a “real anger growing across the North”.

But speaking while visiting communities affected in York, Mr Cameron rejected the accusation.

He said ministers needed to assess “what we are planning to build, what we are planning to spend and see if more can be done”.

The government has ordered a major review of flood prevention strategy.

But the prime minister insisted the government had spent “more per head of the population on flood defences in the north than we do in the south”.

“We are going to spend £2.3bn on flood defences in this parliament but we will look at what’s happened here and see what needs to be done,” he added.

The Environment Agency has nine severe flood warnings – meaning danger to life – in place in north-east and north-west England, and more than 100 other flood alerts across England and Wales.

It comes as a fresh storm – which has officially been named Storm Frank – is set to bring further heavy rain late on Tuesday into Wednesday.

Many places in northern England have seen record river levels over the past 24 hours, including the River Aire in Leeds, and the rivers Calder and Ribble, affecting places such as Whalley, Hebden Bridge and Ribchester.

The River Ouse is now thought to have stabilised in York, where hundreds of people had to leave flooded homes following the torrential rain over Christmas, but water levels are still believed to be rising in the town of Selby.

BBC.NEWS…

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