Storm Babet: PM Rishi Sunak said his 'thoughts are with those affected by the floods' – but declined to say if he would visit the county

A major incident was declared in Derbyshire on Friday after a day of flooding chaos closed many of the county's roads and devastated homes and businesses.

Asked if Mr Sunak would be visiting to show support the PM’s press office said his thoughts are with flood victims – but did not comment further.

When Derbyshire was last affected by widespread floods in 2019, PM at the time Boris Johnson, visited Matlock.

A Government spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister’s thoughts are with all those affected by the impacts of Storm Babet, and his sympathies go to the family and friends of those who have tragically died.

“We know this will be a difficult time for families and businesses, and we’re working closely with the Environment Agency and local partners to manage the response, ensuring people get the help they need as soon as they need it, and any damage is mitigated as much as possible. We also have in place a flood reinsurance scheme to improve the affordability and availability of insurance for households at high risk of flood.

“The Government and local teams have also been in constant contact to ensure the right preparations are in place to mitigate the risk of flooding, with over 32,000 homes protected thanks to defences in place – but we know more can be done, which is why we’re going even further by delivering a record £5.2bn investment to better protect hundreds of thousands of properties.

"Any PM travel will be set out in the usual way. The Environment Secretary has been visiting a community impacted by flooding in Nottinghamshire, and Minister Pow visited Bewdley to see the work that Environment Agency teams are doing on the ground.

“Environment Agency teams are active on the ground, working with partners in affected communities. An estimated 41,000 properties have been protected and as part of the EA’s response, twenty high volume pumps and five small volume pumps have been deployed across several sites.

"The Environment Agency is working round the clock with its partners to help reduce the risk. Teams are operating flood defences, flood storage reservoirs and putting up temporary barriers where needed to help protect communities.”

The Government spokesperson highlighted that since 2010, £74m have been invested in flood schemes in Derbyshire, including £60m of Government Funding.

This also includes the £46m Derby Flood schemes that protected 810 properties, the Lower Dove Flood Alleviation Scheme, which invested £8.9 million to protect 1,619 homes and around £200k spent to reduce flooding to 196 properties in Buxton £400K in Long Eaton to protect 660 homes.

Nevertheless, big parts of Derby have been left under water with three ‘danger to life’ warnings in place – and over 250 have been evacuated from their homes in Long Eaton.

The Government spokesperson added: “Since 2015, we have better protected more than 374,000 homes across the country thanks to our investment in new flood defences. But we’re going even further, delivering a record £5.2bn investment to better protect hundreds of thousands of properties.

"This builds on the successful delivery of the previous £2.6 billion investment between 2015 and 2021, better protecting more than 314,000 homes. And last year (April 2022 to March 2023) we invested £770m to better protect 26,400 properties from flooding.

“We are prepared to take action this winter wherever it is needed – the EA have 350 high volume pumps available and around 6,000 staff trained and ready for incidents. And they have 4,600 staff as part of their “first responder” team, with around 677 staff on standby at any one time to provide 24/7 cover for incidents.

“The EA’s flood warning system is also used to directly alert over 1.4 million properties at the touch of a button when flooding is expected.”

Asked about support for home owners and businesses in Chesterfield that have struggled to secure flood protection insurance, the Government spokesperson said: “The UK-wide Flood Re scheme is a flood re-insurance scheme with the purpose to provide reinsurance in such a way as to promote affordability and availability of insurance for UK households at high flood risk.

“Flood Re does not deal directly with homeowners, but instead allows insurance companies to pass the flood risk element of home insurance policies over to Flood Re. When there is a flood, Flood Re will pay the insurer the cost of the claim made by the policyholder.

“In 2022/23, Flood Re provided cover for over 265,000 household policies. More than 500,000 properties have benefitted since the scheme’s launch.

"Prior to Flood Re, 9% of policy holders with a prior flood claim could obtain flood insurance quotes from 2 or more insurers and 0% could get quotes from 5 or more. Following the Scheme’s launch, most customers can now get over 10 quotes. Flood Re is available via more than 85 insurance brands representing 94% of the home insurance market.

“Regulations came into force in April 2022 that allow Flood Re to pay claims from insurers which include an amount for resilient repair (Build-Back-Better) up to a value of £10,000 over and above the cost for like-for-like reinstatement of actual flood damage.

“Build-Back-Better (BBB) will help eligible flooded households become more resilient to flooding, enable homeowners to return more quickly after any future flooding, and will help reduce the cost of damages after a flood.

“Signposting Service - Defra worked with industry (Association of British Insurers, British Insurance Brokers’ Association, Flood Re) to set up a new flood insurance directory which insurers and brokers can signpost customers to when they cannot offer flood cover. Find Insurance - The British Insurance Brokers' Association (biba.org.uk). The signposting service has assisted over 13,000 enquiries since its launch in September 2022.”