Speaking before Thursday’s publication of the government’s report into the response to flooding in Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire last December, Benyon predicted that more resources would be made available.

But he also called for more long-term measures to tackle the problem and said Britain’s vote to leave the European Union could help achieve this.

The former minister, who backed the remain campaign, said: “There is an opportunity now to completely rethink rural policy, and flood protection can come in as part of the way we support farmers and see farming as doing a public good when it protects communities from flooding.”

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Benyon said the EU common agricultural policy of payments to farmers was a “very blunt instrument”.

He said: “I want to pay farmers for public goods. If a farmer makes his land available to hold flood water that would otherwise go into people’s homes he is delivering a public good. And he can do that by planting trees and looking at something like the flood plain meadows partnership.” He also cited a “slow the flow” scheme that has been shown to have prevented flooding at Pickering in North Yorkshire.

Mary Creagh, chair of the environmental audit committee, said communities threatened by flooding needed more immediate help.

She said: “People living in the cities of Leeds, and York and Carlisle can’t wait for six years or 10 years for this type of very slow-growing [project]. These cities need defending now.”

She called for the government to devote resources and planning to flooding similar to those seen in the Netherlands.

Benyon agreed that more money should be spent on tackling flooding. He said: “Governments of every persuasion are going to have to spend lots of money on steel and concrete and large-scale protection. This report is absolutely vital ... to make sure that not only local authorities but right down to individual householders are taking responsibility for something that will continue to be a risk for now and in the future.”

Flood defence spending was cut sharply by David Cameron’s coalition government but partly reversed after severe floods in the winters of 2013-14 and 2015-16. In March’s budget, a £700m boost was pledged, meaning some English cities and towns that had been left without planned flood defences by the cuts are now getting the projects. The north of England, devastated by winter floods, is getting at least £150m of the new money, giving better protection for thousands of homes.

The Guardian had revealed in 2012 that 294 projects in line for funding were left stranded after the heavy cuts and exposed a series of places that were later flooded.

These included Leeds and Kendal, which were submerged in last winter’s storms. Both places will now get new defences. The new money is being funded by an increase in insurance premium tax.

The government had been warned by a series of official bodies that flood risk was rising due to inadequate spending and was costing billions of pounds in damages. Government scientists have long warned that more severe flooding is the greatest impact of climate change in the UK.

Floods already causes £1bn of damage every year on average but the risks will rise yet further as climate change leads to more intense rainfall, bringing floods to places not currently in danger. The number of households at significant risk of flooding will more than double to 1.9m by 2050, if the global temperature rises by 4C.

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