For every home or business directly affected, flooding has devastating consequences that will be felt for many months to come. Our thoughts are with all those affected, inside and outside the constituency. The Government has announced an extension of the package of financial support and I would be very happy to help anyone within Thirsk and Malton to make sure they receive any available compensation.
We are very grateful to the emergency services, our armed forces, local authorities and the Environment Agency for working round the clock to minimise the impact of the floods.
Simply saying that these are exceptional events will not do. Once the floods have subsided, we need to have a long term strategy to manage future weather patterns. The Slow the Flow project at Pickering is an excellent example of how we can manage our countryside in a natural way to hold flood waters upstream. I have asked the Secretary of State to look at this as part of a comprehensive future solution in the flooding debate earlier this month. We need to look at tax incentives for farmers to help with these initiatives, as well as additional direct investment in flood attenuation measures.