Mr Benn met Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart at Hedon Town Hall, together with Haltemprice MP David Davis, local ward councillors and representatives from the NFU and the Environment Agency.

Speaking after the meeting Mrs Stuart said; “I’m grateful that the Secretary of State visited the East Riding and listened carefully to what local MPs, councillors and representatives had to say.

“We asked him to do all he can to encourage insurance companies and others to get everyone still displaced from last year’s floods back into their homes.

“I agreed to write to him with evidence of the various difficulties facing those who, 14 months on, are still out of their homes.

“We all called for a rethink from the Minister of the Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy.

“If implemented, it would see the loss of 1,000 homes and 28,000 acres of land over the next 40 years in the East Riding alone by failing to renew and enhance flood defences.

“We explained that, at present day prices, the homes in the East Riding are worth at least £150m and the land, at an estimated £6.500 per acre, around £180m.

“The cost of upgrading the defences in the next 25 years would, according to the Environment Agency, be little more than £30m or around £1.2m per year.

“We believe the land and the communities living on it can and must be saved.

“The Minister agreed that ideally all the defences would be maintained but that ‘society’ must decide how much it wants to spend to protect homes and livelihoods from rising sea levels and flooding.

“Mr Benn has agreed to look again at the way money is allocated to flood schemes and write to me setting out how the calculations are made so that we can ensure that the East Riding is being given a fair chance of funding.

“He also agreed to investigate how local funding, from the local authority or land owners, can be raised and used to supplement government funding for flood defence.”

l See also letters on page 8