It was reacting to the Environment Agency's (EA) review into the summer flooding, which has just been published.

A BCC spokesman said:

"The summer floods had a disastrous impact on many businesses across the country with many still not back to full production.

"In the future, local strategies need to be developed, especially in the highest risk areas, which involve businesses and draws from the lessons learnt over this summer.

"It is clearly the opinion of business that the recent floods were not a unique one off event and could happen again with equally damaging results. Action to prepare and defend those companies at risk must be taken now."