Michael Johnson, 60, moved into this three-floor Victorian terrace house on Warwick Road in Carlisle last October after being assured by the local council and estate agents that the 2005 floods could never happen again thanks to the flood defences. To his horror, this weekend’s floods were far worse.

Some 9,000 litres of flood water was being pumped from his devastated house when he spoke to me this afternoon. After this weekend’s damage he wants to sell the £300,000 property but fears no one would buy it.

“The problem is who’s gonna buy a house that’s been flooded twice in 10 years? Even if you make it a palace … I feel as though I’m probably stuck here now,” he says.