THE Environment Agency has added insult to injury for thousands of the region's flood victims by declaring that extra flood-defence funding will go to the more affluent areas in the South first.

The agency's formula for defending flood-prone areas is based on the value of property each scheme is designed to protect.

Badly hit-areas such as North Yorkshire, Weardale and Northumberland, which suffered some of the severest flooding in the country, will lose out on the annual £310m flood defence cash because the value of property is lower than parts of the South.

The formula has been forced on the Environment Agency by the Treasury, which has ordered that every flood defence scheme must pass a strict cost-benefit scheme.

Last night, North Yorkshire County councillor Michael Knaggs, who represents Malton, which was devastated by the recent flooding, said: "If the Government is going to throw good money at protecting flood-prone areas, then it has to spend serious money on the worst-affected areas.

"It is time this formula was scrapped and replaced by one that serves the people who are suffering the most."

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "Areas such as Malton and York, and other parts of the region, will not be ignored and flood-defence schemes will be going ahead as planned.

"We ourselves are pushing for a change in the formula."