An independent person is to head the flood review announced this morning by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, MPs were told Monday. Britains Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told the House of Commons the review would look at the trail of devastation across the country caused by flooding over the last three days. Benn also warned that the emergency was "far from over and further flooding is very likely".The British Government has already pledged to raise spending on flood defences to 800 million pounds by 2010-11.
For his part, the main opposition Conservative environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth joined Benn in paying tribute to the emergency services and local communities for their response to the flooding. "We aren't interested in playing a blame game. The extreme weather events which led to the current floods, as well as those in the north of England last month, are not the Government's fault", he told MPs. "They are a humbling reminder of the awesome power of nature".
"What matters is to be quite certain that everything feasible that could be done to respond both to the threat of flooding and to the flooding events themselves was done, is being done and will continue to be done", Ainsworth added.