Video: Environment Secretary Owen Paterson on flood services

As severe rain and storms batter the UK, the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has said that front line flood service jobs remain protected.

Paterson said that he the chief executive of the Environment Agency assured him that although cuts need to be made, they will be done "with the intention of protecting frontline services concerned with floods".

Paterson went on to say: "Like every department, this department has had to make efficiencies given the dire financial position inherited when we came to power."

"This government is spending more than all preceding governments on flood defences. That means 165,000 properties will be protected by 2015."