What recent discussions he has had with the Environment Agency on the implementation of the EU floods directive.

DEFRA officials hold regular discussions with the Environment Agency on a range of matters associated with the draft floods and water Bill, which will include the implementation of the EU floods directive.

The EU floods directive is due to be implemented this September. What reassurances can the Secretary of State give to the many people who have suffered flood damage in the past couple of years in particular, including my constituents, who have suffered flood damage three or four times in that short period? What reassurance is there that the Environment Agency will be able to implement the directive on time, when there were some 200 flood risk-based vacancies in the agency only last summer?

I am well aware of the flooding that the hon. Gentleman's constituents have suffered, and the greatest reassurance that I can offer him is that since the floods of 2007, 49 schemes have been put in place, protecting 37,000 homes across the country, as I have reported to the House previously. Frankly, that is the best protection. We are putting more money into flood defence; indeed, we are bringing forward some of that investment in order to provide the protection earlier. We will be consulting on the draft floods and water Bill, which will look at how we implement the EU floods directive. Part of the work that that will require is already in train. The Bill will cover the further steps that we need to take to implement it.

My right hon. Friend was very helpful at the time of the floods in July 2007, but we were also promised some EU funding for some of the measures that we need to put in place. It would be useful to know what money we have received from the EU and how it can be taken forward in respect of the floods and water Bill. The sooner we get that Bill in place, the better.

The question of EU funding to support the recovery effort was dealt with by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. As I indicated in answer to the first question, we are significantly increasing the investment in providing defence. It is important that we do that, because it gives us the opportunity to provide more flood protection. Each scheme has to be assessed against criteria. Not all of them can go ahead, but the best thing that we can do is ensure that more money is available.

Almost every weekend since December I have been visiting people who were affected by floods in my Constituency. Is not the clear message that there needs to be a step change in our approach to flooding? We need much more emphasis on the maintenance of watercourses and drainage and much more concentration on resilience. We need to empower local communities to help themselves and we need to manage whole river catchment areas more effectively. May I invite the Secretary of State again to visit Somerset and to see for himself the problems that we face there and, perhaps, some of the solutions that have been developed locally, with which he might help?

If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I will do my level best to accept his invitation. Indeed, I know that he was personally caught up in the recent flooding. The truth is that the answer is all the things that he mentioned. They were all laid out clearly in Sir Michael Pitt's excellent report, as the hon. Gentleman will be aware. We have accepted all the recommendations and we are getting on with implementing them, because there is not just one solution, and local responsibility is included in that. Indeed, I am absolutely up for looking at steps that can be taken locally, both because that engenders a greater sense of responsibility in local communities about what they can do to help and because, frankly, this is a task for all of us.

Two weeks ago, many villages in and around Braintree and Witham were once again hit by substantial flooding, which closed roads and left people stranded. Does the Secretary of State agree or at least recognise that my Constituency urgently needs further investment for flood prevention, and will he commit to that investment today?

I recognise that the hon. Gentleman's constituents were affected by the flooding and I know that he wrote to my right hon. Friend the Minister of State on that question. Mercifully, the number of properties flooded across the country was relatively small and a number of the flood defence schemes that have been put in place acted to protect people in those circumstances. On investment, the Government's position is crystal clear. It would be quite helpful if the hon. Gentleman encouraged his party's new Shadow spokesperson to give an equally clear commitment that it supports the investment that we are going to make up to 2010-11.