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Pitt Report

I have great sympathy with the hon. Gentleman's constituents who have suffered in the way that he has described. The Government's job is to ensure that we play our part by providing more funding for the Environment Agency for flood defence work, and that is exactly what we are doing. I think I had been in the job for about a week when I stood at this Dispatch Box and announced an increase of £200 million over the three years to 20010-11. It is because we have been putting in more money that we have been able to protect an additional 37,000 homes since the summer of 2007, and 145,000 homes will be protected by the end of 2010-11. We all have a responsibility to ensure that we argue the case for further investment in flood defence, because that is the only way in which we shall be able to help the hon. Gentleman's constituents.