Chancellor George Osborne has announced a financial package to help repair flood damage following Storm Desmond, including money for highways and infrastructure defences.
The news comes as communities secretary, Greg Clark, announced that residents will not face council tax or business rate bills for the homes and businesses they have been displaced from due to the floods.
Government also confirmed that local authorities will have 100% of their clean-up costs reimbursed under the Bellwin scheme.
Mr Clark said: ‘Residents and businesses who have been displaced by flooding should not have to worry about council tax and business rate bills on top of everything else they will be facing at this difficult time.’
‘That’s why’, he continued, ‘we’ll make funding available to help householders and businesses with their council tax and business rates bills for as long as they are out of their properties.’
The Government has also defended its record on investment in flood protection amid criticisms that projected spending between 2015 and 2021 will only be £2.3bn as compared to 2010 to 2015 when it was £3.4bn.
Whitehall will, according to Mr Clark, build 1,400 more flood defences and protect 300,000 more homes from flooding across the country.
Chancellor George Osborne also announced a further £51m to support households and businesses affected in Cumbria and Lancashire, taking the total support from government to over £60m.
As well as going to those directly affected by the floods, the cash will help Cumbria and Lancashire assess the damage to the local highway network 'to allow us to understand what additional local transport infrastructure funding could be provided to help repair roads and bridges' the Treasury said.
It will also help 'bring the local flood defences back up to their target conditions, with an additional £10m invested through the Environment Agency to repair the flood defences'.
