UK floods: Cameron says ‘money is no object’ – as it happened

Q: Did you tell staff to get rid of the green cap? And do you think your MPs will be more willing to talk about climate change now their constituencies are under water?

Cameron says he has always taken climate change seriously. For example, he set up the Green Investment Bank.

The point he is trying to make today is that, whatever your views, it is clear that we are facing some very tough weather challenges. He says he will never forget the floods in his constituency in 2007.

In Cornwall he met a family who had water coming down the chimney because the waves were so high.

Whether or not you think this is to do with climate change, we should all unite to tackle these problems.

And that’s it.

I’ll post a summary shortly.

Q: If a a currency union with an independent Scotland would be such a bad idea, why don’t you rule it out for good?

Cameron says the chancellor will say more about this later this week.

Q:[From the Daily Mail’s James Chapman - or “Chappers” as Cameron calls him] What do you say to the idea of diverting money from the aid budget to help flood victims? [The Mail is campaigning for this.]

Cameron says there is no need for this. The money is available.

Q: What does the apology you share with Eric Pickles amount to?

Cameron says Pickles was right to be sorry about what has happened.

Q: Shouldn’t you have despatched the army earlier?

Cameron says the army are always available. But he wants to make it easier for councils to get them involved. But there has been military involvement for some time. In one case, they were involved before Christmas.

Q: Will you hold press conferences regularly?

Cameron says he answers questions from the press every day.

Q: You have struck a deal with the insurance industry on insurance for people in flood areas. But business is not included. Will you reconsider?

Cameron says grants will be available to help businesses. But he will look at this point.

Q: Aren’t you having to say money is no object now because you did not prioritise flood defence work before?

Cameron says he does not accept that. The government is spending £2.4bn over a four year period, he says.

Q: How long will it be before life can return to normal?

Cameron says it will take six weeks to repair the rail line at Dawlish.

On the Somerset Levels, it depends how much more rain falls, and how much more pumping can be carried out. It is going to take a lot of time, he says.

Cameron says Cobra has had something like 28 meetings. It has been engaged in this since Christmas.

He says the military are always involved in an emergency. For example, they have been involved in Somerset for some time.

Thousands of marines and commandos are available to help, he says.

And he is encouraging councils to ask if they need help.

And he wants to make it explicit that the military can play a community support role.

Q: Did you leave it too late to visit?

Cameron says he tries to do a visit when he is in a position to learn something.

He did one visit before Christmas, he says.

Q: You did not mention the Environment Agency leadership. Why not?

Cameron says the staff have done an amazing job. This is not a time for people to leave their posts.

Q: Is climate change a factor?

Cameron says he answered this in the Commons recently. (He said he thought it was a factor.)

Q: Does your environment secretary believe in climate change?

Cameron says his view about climate change, as expressed in the Commons, is the view of the whole government.

Q: Will you provide money to help householders with repair?

Cameron says he has seen how ghastly the impact has been for people who have been flooded.

Insurance companies need to pay up fast. Most are. If they don’t, the government will chase them up.

For people who do not have insurance, hardship funds can help. If local authorities run out of money, they can come to central government for help.

Q: Will you reconsider planning rules about flood plains?

This is kept under permanent review, Cameron says.

Official advice is followed in 99% of cases.

Q: Was Eric Pickles right to say what he said?

Cameron says Pickles was right to say he was sorry about what was happening to people.

And the Environment Agency are doing a great job. Pickles was right to say that in the Commons yesterday.

Q: Shouldn’t you admit you did not spend enough on flood defences? And won’t you admit that, when it floods, there is not much the government can do?

Cameron says the government has spent more on flood defences.

But, when it rains as much as this, there is a limit to what can be done.

There are always lessons to be learnt, he says.

Cameron is now taking questions.

Q: You did not mention the Environment Agency? And why are you ministers squabbling about them?

Cameron says he did mention them at the start of the statement. He mentioned them twice.

On the “other issue”, he says he has said all he wants to on this.

There will be a time to discuss how the pendulum against dredging swung too far. But that’s not now.

In the toughest of time we are seeing the best of Britain, he says.

Cameron says the government is starting to think about recovery measures.

A committee will be set up to consider what can be done.

Grants for flood defences will be available.

And there will be a tax deferral scheme for business affected.

There are lessons to be learnt, he says.

But now the focus is on helping people who need help.

Cameron says he has been impressed by the community spirit seen on display.

Cameron is still speaking.

Network Rail is working 18 hours a day to fix the track at Dawlish, he says.

There 3m tonnes of water being pumped out from the Somerset Levels every day.

But, like Dawlish, this will take time to fix.

The most serious problems are in the Thames Valley, he says. Cobra will discuss further action that need to be taken tonight.

David Cameron is speaking now.

He says some Environment Agency staff have been on an emergency footing since Christmas.

He thanks the emergency services.

The government has acted where necessary, he says.

The rules have been changed so that local councils can claim back all the money they spend.

Cameron says his message today is – money is no object.

• Cameron says the government will spend whatever money it has to to sort out the flooding problems. Money is no object, he says.

• He says he has cancelled a trip to the Middle East next week to enable him to stay in the UK to address the problems.

David Cameron’s press conference is about to start.

According to a lobby calculation, it is his first one for 238 days.

Here are some interesting numbers from a Surrey police update on the multi-agency response to the flooding in the county

• 410 tonnes of water are currently passing through Staines every second

• More than 2800 homes along 470 roads in high risk areas have been visited to issue flood warnings and advice on evacuation procedures

• 150 homes have been evacuated by Surrey fire and rescue

• Surrey and Sussex police have 74 4×4 vehicles to assist emergency services in gaining access to flooded areas

• Additional rescue craft has been provided by Sussex police, the military and the Metropolitan police to assist as part of the flooding response

• 100 dedicated officers and staff from Surrey and Sussex police continue to work on flooding response at any one time as well as continuing local patrols in affected areas

• Surrey county council highways have provided 12,000 additional sandbags to local borough councils for distribution in affected areas

• 44 on-going road closures remain in place across the county

The British army says that more than 1,650 of its staff have been drafted in to help with the response to the floods in the south of the UK.

Like politicians the Sun doesn’t miss a photo op. It has delivered thousands of sandbags to Wraysbury.

Steven Morris has just been on a tractor trailer trip through the cut-off village of Moorland on the Somerset Levels where the water is still rising.

I met the couple featured on the front of the Daily Mail, Mark and Kate Kirby. They had just gone back for another look – and said the water level was continuing to rise. They can’t imagine ever getting back at the moment.

As at Burrowbridge, locals are angry at what they see as a lack of help from the authorities – not the Environment Agency, which is battling bravely to hold back the waters – but others who could be getting supplies in and out to the few left there. A local farmer is providing the makeshift taxi service.

They are angry at what they say as a lack of police presence guarding the almost deserted village. And they are even looking to hire private security guards.

Further north, the EA’s excellent Herefordshire and Worcestershire manager, Dave Throup, has just tweeted this regarding the Severn.

The Met Office has stretched its amber “be prepared” warning to many areas in northern England.

It is forecasting damaging high winds for Wednesday:

A vigorous area of low pressure is expected to move northeastwards across northern parts of the UK later on Wednesday, clearing eastwards early on Thursday. This is likely to be accompanied by a swathe of southwesterly gales across many areas which may be severe in places. Winds will veer more westerly later on Wednesday.

A first peak in the winds is likely over southwest England around the middle of Wednesday but with the main swathe of even stronger and potentially damaging winds crossing parts of Wales then northern England later in the day.

The public should be prepared for the the risk of disruption to transport and possibly also power supplies. In addition, large waves are likely to affect some coasts.

Lord Smith has also rejected Ukip and Daily Mail’s campaign to raid the foreign aid budget to help flood victims.

PA quoted him saying:

Now is not the time for silly games like this. There’s important work to be done helping the country cope with storms and extreme weather, and I intend to carry on doing precisely that.

Flooding in the Thames Valley should provide a “sharp reminder” even to climate change sceptics of the risk of flooding, former Conservative environment secretary Caroline Spelman has warned.

Speaking to the Guardian, she said:

This flooding is a sharp reminder that everyone, sceptic or not, has to think about the risk of flooding, whatever they think causes it … We need to adapt. What is happening now relates to what we were doing two decades ago [in increasing greenhouse gas emissions].

Ed Miliband was heckled as he visited flood-hit Wraysbury, Robert Booth reports.

There was anger among some locals, including the deputy mayoress of the Windsor and Maidenhead, Margaret Lenton, who accused the opposition leader of seeking a photo opportunity and blocking volunteers from doing their work of rescuing people from rising waters.

As Miliband gave an interview to Sky News from the school hall, Lento called out: “You people get out,” and Miliband and his entourage were ushered away.

“I am really angry,” Lenton told the Guardian. “What is he doing here? Where have they been all this time? He was standing in the middle of a working organisation where we are trying to get people rescued. He turns up for a photo opportunity when we are now down to hard cases of rescuing old and vulnerable people.”

Steven Morris on the Somerset Levels has a sneak preview of how the authorities plan to clear the flood waters.

Residents in the Berkshire village of Wraysbury say the army has arrived too late, Robert Booth reports.

David Cameron has rejected calls by the Daily Mail and Ukip to raid the foreign aid budget to help flood victims in the UK.

Interviewed on LBC the prime minister said:

I don’t think it’s needed to go for the aid budget because we will make available the money that’s needed here in Britain. Whatever it takes, money will not be the object.

We are a wealthy country, we have a growing economy. If money is needed for clean-up, money will be made available. If money is needed to help households get back on their feet, that money will be made available. Money is not an object. There’s no either or here. It’s not either protecting our overseas aid budget or spending the money here at home. What we need at home will be spent here at home. As prime minister, I will absolutely guarantee that that will be done. I’ve spoken to the Chancellor about this.

Yes of course there are financial constraints, yes of course we still have a big budget deficit but we are a wealthy country, we have a growing economy, we’ve looked after our nations finances carefully. This is an emergency for our country and we will spend the money where the money is needed.

Surrey police are being given access to £10m of emergency reserves to help tackle the floods.

Announcing the move Kevin Hurley, police and crime commissioner for Surrey, said:

I want to make sure that the chief constable has the resources she needs to support her officers and staff out there on the ground and help us to do as much as we can for the communities affected. I have immediately made our financial reserves available to her – for personnel resources, along with any equipment they need to help residents at this time of great need.

He said the local authorities, emergency services, other agencies, voluntary groups and the armed forces were working closely together to help.

This is having a drastic impact on tens of thousands of Surrey residents. We maintain our financial reserves for just such times of emergency and we will do whatever it takes to help protect life and property in the flood areas, as well as helping these communities to get back on their feet when the waters have subsided.

The military has arrived in force to help evacuate homes at risk of flooding in Wraysbury, Robert Booth reports.

Eight truck loads of troops from a fusiliers regiment arrived in the last 90 minutes. They are teaming up with local volunteers and boats to map out who needs what.

“About time” is the sentiment of many locals.

Police in Somerset are to stop using amphibious vehicles to help reach stranded residents after complaints that they created too many waves.

Avon and Somerset Police said they will use a more conventional Unimog vehicle instead.

“Local people wishing to travel to Thorney had raised concerns about waves being created by the amphibious vehicle,” it said in a statement.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage has made it to Chertsey in a 4×4.

Surrey police have tried to quash fears of looting from homes evacuated because of the floods.

Assistant chief constable John Campbell, who is leading the flood relief operation in the Thames Valley, said there had been no reports of looting in the area.

I am aware that there have been rumours circulating about criminal activity and suggestions that looting has been taking place. I can state that there have been no reports to police that corroborate these rumours and additional officers have been deployed to flood affected areas to deter those who would look to exploit this situation to criminal ends.

We are working very hard to help people and we will do everything we can to try and restore things back to normal as quickly as possible.

The record high flow of the Thames will continue for many weeks, hydrologists warned on Tuesday, because unprecedented rainfall has filled underground aquifers too the brim writes Damian Carrington.

Even if the persistent rain stopped now, an unlikely event according to forecasters, the water in soil and rock will continue to seep into the river. The hydrologists also warned that groundwater flooding, where water flows from sodden hills, will strike for months in some parts of southern England.

“On the Thames we have had the highest sustained flow since 1883,” said Terry Marsh, a hydrologist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford. “The flows on the Thames are likely to be sustained for some time – a substantial number of weeks.”

Andrew McKenzie, a hydrologist at the British Geological Survey, said: “We have seen very high rises in groundwater and the sand and gravel aquifers along the Thames are now full.”

After two wet winters in 2000 and 2001, groundwater flooding affected some areas – particularly west Berkshire and parts of Wiltshire – until May, McKenzie said: “We’re certainly expecting to see many more months of groundwater flooding.” He said such flooding could swamp sewers and cause toilets to overflow.

Marsh said that the capacity of the Thames had been increased by 30% after severe floods in 1947, in part by dredging. He said action to limit the damage to homes was important now, but added: “People who live next to a river should realise that river is going to rise at times and sometimes very quickly.”

He said people could adapt to this by moving the living area of their homes to upper levels: “You see new flats on the Thames at Reading where the ground floor is entirely devoted the past parking so the river can flow through.”

The Guardian’s global development blog Poverty Matters is seeking your views on why Ukip and the Daily Mail are targeting the foreign aid budget to help the UK’s flood victims.

“The priority at the moment is to support all of the authorities and all of the agencies that are dealing with this,” Labour leader Ed Miliband told reporters on a visit to flood-hit Wraysbury.

He said he knew from experience as a minister during the 2007 floods that when “government [ministers] start pointing the finger of blame at each other and government agencies [it] gets you no where.”

(Thanks to Rob Booth for the mobile phone footage).

There’s bad news and there’s good news from the Met Office.

The bad news is that the amber “be prepared” warnings for Wednesday have been extended to Yorkshire and Humber, the north-east and the north-west (they were already in place for London and the south-east, the south-west, the west midlands and Wales).

The good news is that there are now no amber warnings in place for Thursday and London and the south-east no longer has an amber warning on Wednesday. Yellow “be aware” warnings remain in place across England and Wales on Thursday.

Here’s the full text of those statements from the Environment Agency’s board members backing chairman Lord Smith and hitting back at government criticism.

As independent board members of the Environment Agency we have been following the commentary about the Agency’s performance over the recent weeks of unprecedented rain and storms. We know that flooding always causes misery, and we sympathise with the anger and frustration felt by flood victims in Somerset, the Thames Valley and many other places. We are also pleased that, since early December, over one million homes and thousands of businesses have been protected from flood damage by the defences we have put in place.
We are very concerned about recent public and political criticism of our staff and our Chairman.
Our work is based on firm evidence and tested science. Of course it is open to anyone to take issue with expert scientific opinion. But at a time of emergency it is more important for us all to focus relentlessly on managing the current floods and helping to minimise their impact. Just as it is wrong to criticise the work of our staff on the ground, it is equally wrong to seek to place blame for the recent flooding events on the Chairman and “ people in London”.
We are tasked with implementing government policy and are subject to Treasury rules about the use of public money. These are designed to target resources where they can have greatest effect in terms of policy objectives. So we also welcome the extra money which has now been allocated to flood defence nationally, and in Somerset. We will ensure that every pound of taxpayers’ money we invest offers real value now and in the long term. The Agency will be dredging rivers in Somerset as soon as it is safe to do so. The wider debate about dredging and what it achieves needs to be had.
The time for that is when these floods are over.
We attach a message which we have sent today to all Environment Agency staff supporting them in their vital work – alongside other dedicated professionals from the emergency services, local authorities and the military.

Robert Light, Peter Ainsworth, Karen Burrows, Emma Howard Boyd, Richard Leafe, Richard Macdonald, John Varley, Jeremy Walker
Independent Board Members, Environment Agency

In a letter to staff the board members added:

Throughout the many incidents of recent years – flood related and others – the Agency’s Board has been consistently impressed by the professionalism, commitment and resilience of staff, managers and Directors – and never more so than in last two months.
So we have been deeply concerned about the recent campaign of criticism, particularly around the handling of flooding in Somerset. We think this criticism is ill informed and unfair – and we particularly deplore the personal nature of some of it.
We fear it can only have the effect of undermining public confidence in the Agency, our Chairman – whom we fully support – our managers and our staff, and belittling the work that you do. This is wrong and very unhelpful at a time when we are all working hard to minimise the impact of extreme weather. We want to put our views on record to you and publicly. We also want to say a big thank you for your fantastic work. We also attach to this message the text of a letter we sent to the Sunday Times, which was published yesterday, although sadly they chose to cut most of it out before it was printed.
Thank you again for all that you do.

Ukip’s leader Nigel Farage, who is heading for flood-hit Chertsey, has welcomed that Daily Mail petition calling for foreign aid money to be diverted to flood victims. He said:

It’s great news that the Daily Mail has taken up this cause and I would like Ukip supporters to back it wholeheartedly in this campaign.

As I said last week, it is just plain common sense for a government to prioritise its own citizens when they are in need and in peril. Ukip can see that, the Mail can see that, a large majority of the British public can see that. So why can’t the political establishment see that?

I give the Daily Mail campaign my own whole-hearted support. The government must listen and act quickly. If it does not it will pay a high price.

Nick Martin from Sky News shows the scene in Chertsey using his mobile phone while hitching a ride on Fire Engine. At the end of the clip he reports seeing the army and ambulance crews at a muster point.

Meanwhile, the AA has warned drivers to watch out for snow in Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Dyfed Powys Police also warned of heavy snow on the Welsh coast.

David Cameron says he’ll give a press conference in Downing Street at 4.45pm following his two-day tour of storm-hit areas in the south-west.

Downing Street’s Twitter feed also repeated a commitment to bring together all the government’s resources to tackle the crisis.

David Cameron has warned that it would take time to recover from the storms as he witnessed Network Rail’s efforts to repair the seawall at Dawlish.

The prime minister said it was “going to take time before we get things back to normal” but said ministers would do everything possible.

He added:

It is a huge challenge and we have had the wettest start to a year for 250 years, some of the most extreme weather we have seen in our country in decades.

And you can see behind me the effect it’s had. We have to recognise it is going to take time before we get things back to normal.

We are in for the long haul but the government will do everything it can to coordinate the nation’s resources. If money needs to be spent, it will be spent; if resources are required we will provide them; if the military can help, they will be there.

We must do everything but it will take time to put these things right.

That’s all they need. Ukip leader Nigel Farage is heading for Chertsey.

Defence secretary Philip Hammond said 1,600 armed forces personnel are
ready to assist in efforts to relieve flood-hit areas after he was confronted by an angry resident who said they were not being taken seriously by the authorities, PA reports.

Speaking before reports that troops are being deployed in Chertsey, Hammond said: “We’ve got 1,600 soldiers and sailors on stand-by ready to move as soon as they are needed and they have been out doing jobs, building sandbag walls, building defences.”

He was challenged by volunteer flood warden Su Burrows who pleaded for military help for the area around Wraysbury in Berkshire.

Burrows said it had been left to volunteers like her to co-ordinate the relief effort, with no action from Environment Agency officials who were “in an office” rather than on the scene of the flooding.

Pleading with Hammond on Sky News, she said: “I’m sorry, I am going to get emotional. There are 100 people of this village currently working together, none of them agents, not one.

“There is not one Environment Agency officer here, they are in an office. They need to be here, they have no idea.

“We have been working for 48 hours evacuating people, risking our own lives going into waters that would be over my head.”

She said 100 houses had been evacuated but “we need the Army, we said that yesterday, you don’t take us seriously, (the emergency services) gold command don’t take us seriously”.

“What will it take for you to understand we are seriously in need?”

She said sandbags being delivered to the village had been “hijacked”.

Mr Hammond said there was a combined military and police effort to deliver sandbags, and told her: “I thought they would be here by now.”

But he added: “There is no task immediately for the military other than delivering sandbags.”

The army is helping to evacuate homes in Chertsey, according to Mark White from Sky News.

Thames Valley police are distributing much sought-after sandbags in Wraysbury in Berkshire.

Some homes in Datchet should be OK, after help from the Royal Navy.

David Cameron has been meeting local volunteers and community leaders in storm-hit Dawlish on the Devon coast. Newton Abbot MP Anne Marrie Morris has pictures.

Readers continue to share their pictures and stories on GuardianWitness. Here’s a couple of recent examples from Datchet and Henley-on-Thames.

It might be time to revive the idea of amphibious houses. Here’s a film the Guardian made last year about plans for such a home on the banks of the Thames in Marlow.

It was to be built like a conventional house, but designed to rise along guideposts in the event of flooding. Did it work?

Britain’s flood crisis has made the pages of the New York Times. Here’s the start of its take:

As flood warnings move down the River Thames, and closer to the capital, the political tide is rising, too.

Severe-flood alerts, meaning there is real danger to life, are in place for stretches of the Thames that are within 17 miles of London. The marines have been called in, and vulnerable homes were still being evacuated on Monday.

Disaster stories abound: A 7-year-old boy died over the weekend after falling ill in a flooded home in nearby Surrey, a kayaker drowned on a swollen Welsh river, a coastal railroad was ripped up by waves in Cornwall, and scores of additional homes were flooded across the hard-hit Somerset Levels, a coastal plain and wetlands area in southwest England. Around 5,000 houses in Britain have been damaged since December in what has most likely been the rainiest season in at least 248 years.

But the tempest of charges and countercharges about who is to blame for Britain’s lack of preparedness for the crisis has been almost as fierce as the rainstorms battering the country again this week.

Wraysbury’s most high-profile flood victim, Su Burrows, has been talking to PA.

The volunteer flood warden, said the Berkshire village needed more help from the authorities.

We are running on adrenaline and we don’t know how much longer we can keep going. We need big, strong men to help. I’m little. I can’t get down these places.

We are tired. We need people who can sort their own rotas out and get people where they need to be.
You’re covering an entire village for looting with six officers. These guys can’t do this on their own. We have no idea how bad it’s going to get. We’re preparing for the worse.

Not to be outdone by David Cameron’s visit to the storm-hit south-west, Labour leader Ed Miliband is in Purley for a photo op with flood victims.

Kerryr has a photo of her grandparents being evacuated in Chertsey.

Wraysbury resident Su Burrows has challenged Philip Hammond on the government’s response to the floods, live on Sky News.

On a Monday a tearful Burrows urged David Cameron to “get down here now”.

Steven Morris is back on the Somerset Levels today and will have reports later. In the meantime he some optimistic observations from his trip to Worcestershire on Monday. He writes:

It’s miserable day again on Somerset Levels – driving rain, strong winds, and the rivers look higher than they have for days.

On a more cheerful note, new flood defences further north on the River Severn seem to be doing well. A wall built by the Environment Agency to protect riverside properties in Upton upon Severn, Worcestershire, was doing its job. T

his was built after the great floods of 2007 and is keeping most homes and businesses there dry. Also the village of Kempsey between Upton and Worcester is dry. In November 2012 homes there were badly flooded. A pumping station in the village is working well. People in Worcestershire tend to speak well of the Environment Agency.

David Cameron is visiting Dawlish on the Devon coast where a storm last week washed away 80m of the seawall leaving the mangled main south-west railway dangling over the sea.

Network Rail have been using shipping containers filled with rubble to try to rebuild the seawall.

Philip Hammond won’t budge on whether he’s backing Chris Smith. In another interview, this time on BBC News, he dismissed Smith’s fate as an “esoteric” question.

Asked again whether he supports Smith’s chairmanship, Hammond said:

I don’t want to spend the time now in the middle of this crisis recriminating and finger pointing. Clearly there are issues around policy, around long-term planning, around strategy that will have to be reviewed when all this is over.

We will have to look at decisions that were made in the past, whether they were the right decisions, whether we need to change policy for the future particularly on things like dredging.

But it would be a great disservice for people who are facing flood waters lapping around the threshold of their houses to spend our time now arguing about what feel like rather esoteric questions. At the moment the priority is to get help to the areas directly affected.

Hammond confirmed that the army is on standby to help out, but said it was the local gold command’s decision on whether troops will be deployed.

Defence secretary Philip Hammond has stopped short of backing Lord Smith as chairman of the Environment Agency.

Interviewed on the Today programme while on a visit to flood-hit Wraysbury Hammond was specifically asked whether he supported Smith. He replied:

This is not the time for recriminations or for discussions of who did what when. We can do that afterwards.

Pressed for a “yes” or “no” answer on whether he backed Lord Smith, Hammond replied:

Politicians don’t do yes/no questions. I want to work with the Environment Agency all the senior officials there, including Lord Smith, to get the best result we can for the people who are facing this crisis.

Hammond added:

The government has got a grip on this – the emergency services are in the lead. The military have been mobilised to provide additional support where the gold commanders need it … The assets that are needed from across the nation have been mobilised to the areas affected.

Hammond accepted that more could be done to coordinate the emergency response.

He said:

There is tremendous network of community organisation along the river here in Surrey and Berkshire … One of the things I’ve heard over the weekend is that too many different agencies. One of the achievements yesterday in my area of Surrey was getting organised so that there is a single point of contact for the statutory authorities.

Challenged on new house building on flood plains, he said much of southern England, where the housing crisis is worst, was on low level land.

David Cameron will continue to visit flood-hit areas of the country on Tuesday in an effort to demonstrate that he has a grip on the crisis. On Monday he was on Chesil beach which has been hit by unusually high tides and strong winds.

The floods crisis continues to dominate the news agenda as Paperboy’s survey of the papers shows.

Here’s a couple of the most striking front pages.

Fire crews in Surrey have rescued 150 people over the last 24 hours as police warn that residents in around 2,500 homes are at risk. Chief superintendent Matt Twist, borough commander for the flooded areas in north Surrey, described the floods as an “extremely challenging situation”.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he warned residents in the area to be prepared to evacuate their homes if urged to do so:

Surrey fire and rescue have rescued about 150 people in the last 24 hours. We’ve got about 500 roads affected by the floods and at the moment 2,500 homes are at risk.

Responding to criticism from residents that the police were not doing enough, Twist said his officers have been making house-to-house calls in Runnymede, Spelthorne and Elmbridge.

Welcome to our live coverage of the continuing floods crisis.

Here’s a summary of the latest main developments:

• The Environment Agency still has 14 severe flood warnings in place for the banks of the Thames on a 12 mile stretch between the M4 and the M3 in Berkshire and Surrey. There are two more severe warnings in Somerset, and further 132 flood warnings across the country.

• The Met Office is warning of another band of heavy rain sweeping in from the Atlantic. It has issued amber “be prepared” warnings for the south-west and southern Wales where strong winds and more than 30mm of rainfall is expected.

• First Great Western is warning of major disruption on rail services from Paddington after the rising water hit signalling equipment. With trains running on only two of the four tracks passengers are being told to expect delays and cancellations.

• The Environment Agency’s board has backed its beleaguered chairman Lord Smith and hit back at government criticism, the BBC reports. It quotes from a letter to staff which says:

We have been deeply concerned about the recent campaign of criticism, particularly around the handling of flooding in Somerset.

We think this criticism is ill-informed and unfair – and we particularly deplore the personal nature of some of it.

We fear it can only have the effect of undermining public confidence in the agency, our chairman – whom we fully support – our managers and our staff, and belittling the work that you do.

This is wrong and very unhelpful at a time when we are all working hard to minimise the impact of extreme weather.

• David Cameron has ordered his feuding cabinet ministers to put an end to infighting and sniping at the Environment Agency as alarm spread in government about the potential scale of serious flooding along the Thames Valley. The prime minister was said to be exasperated by the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, who attacked the competence of the Environment Agency on Sunday and apologised for the policy decisions taken by the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, who is recuperating from eye surgery.

• Some residents in the Thames Valley had to be rescued by tourist Duck Boat as the water continues to rise, writes Peter Walker.

Such near-farcical scenes illustrate what some local people view as a considerably more serious point: why, when Wraysbury was at imminent risk of severe flooding for several days, was professional help so apparently thin on the ground?

• Daily Mail is launching a petition to use the foreign aid budget to help tackle the flooding crisis – an idea first put forward by Ukip leader Nigel Farage. On a visit to Somerset on Saturday, Farage said: “My message is: ‘Please government, for once put the people first. It would take a tiddly per cent of the overseas aid budget to say to people, however horrible this is, you won’t suffer financially.

• The cost of clearing up after this winter’s floods and storms could hit £1bn if rain continues to fall on water-logged ground and causes damage to more homes and businesses, an insurance expert has warned. On Monday, accountancy firm PwC revised up its forecast for the cost of flooding in December and January to £630m, including a £500m bill for the insurance industry.