Severe flood warnings in place across England and Wales

Nine severe flood warnings are in place across swathes of England and Wales, signalling imminent danger and a possible threat to life.

It comes as the Met Office issued yellow warnings of rain and wind for much of the country, after more than a week of flooding misery for the north.

The severe flood warnings are in place for the following areas:

• River Foss at Huntington and York

• River Foss at Huntington Road and Foss Island

• River Yarrow at Croston, near Grape Lane and Town Road

• River Yarrow at Croston, near Westhead Road and Carvers Brow

• River Yarrow at Croston, near the A581 Meadow Lane and Drinkhouse Lane

• Tang Hall Beck at York's Beckside Properties

• Tang Hall Beck at York's Tang Hall

• Osbaldwick Beck at York's Beckside Properties

• Osbaldwick Beck at York's Osbaldwick and Tang Hall

Meanwhile, 43 other flood warnings have been issued - alerting people that flooding is expected and to take action - along with 61 flood alerts, which warn that flooding is possible.

David Cameron has hit back at criticism of the government's flood spending, but a review has been ordered of the defence system which failed in the face of heavy rains over the Christmas period.

Speaking to the BBC, the Environment Agency's deputy chief executive David Rooke said it would need to examine new ways to flood-proof houses alongside traditional defences, saying the UK was "moving into a period of unknown extremes".

"We will need to have that complete rethink and ... move from not just providing better defences - and we have a #£2.3 billion programme to do that over the next six years - but looking at increasing resilience," he said.

Possible answers could include solid floors, waterproof plaster, electrics moved up the walls and better early-warning systems, he added.