Professor Wolfgang Weisser, from the Technical University of Munich, said metrics that benchmark the adequacy of green infrastructure at a neighbourhood level in relation to human wellbeing were still rare.

But as well as their response, authorities have also come under fire over the adequacy of warning systems before the flood.

In a letter to Hunt at the weekend, OBR chairman Richard Hughes said the review was about the "adequacy of the information and assurances provided to the OBR by the Treasury regarding departmental spending".

But it is also preparing to release an additional report, commissioned earlier this year, on the "adequacy of information" supplied to it by the previous Tory government.

Sir Ben had also been briefed by then-defence minister Johnny Mercer about serious concerns around the adequacy of the RMP investigations, which had resulted in no prosecutions.