Britain's flooding crisis has eased with the arrival of drier weather following a series of fierce storms, while the government pledged a STG10 million ($A18.6 million) package of support for flood-hit businesses.
The country is counting the cost of storms that have claimed several lives and left tens of thousands of homes without power.
Despite the drier weather conditions, swathes of Britain remain on high alert as people struggle to protect homes from floodwaters, which are still expected to rise.
Britain's Environment Agency (EA) has 16 severe flood warnings in place for the south west and the Thames Valley, with almost 130 flood warnings and 187 flood alerts.
Prime Minster David Cameron on Monday announced that small and medium sized firms would have access to STG10 million ($A18.6 million) in funds from the emergency Business Support Scheme in order to keep trading during the clear up.
Business Secretary Vince Cable explained: "It is vital that small businesses affected by the flooding get assistance as quickly as possible.
"We will inform local authorities of their allocations from the Business Support Scheme on Thursday to assist businesses with clean-up costs or help them to continue trading."
The government on Sunday revealed it had asked that the army conduct a rapid inspection of flood defences.
"The response that we are delivering is a proper response... but we are dealing with an extraordinary set of weather events. It has taken some time to mobilise the resources," Defence Minister Philip Hammond told the BBC on Sunday.
He admitted that the government could have called on the army to assist much earlier.
Hammond said more than 3,000 troops were currently deployed to help, with another 5,000 on standby.
"This series of weather events over the last two months has caused some quite serious damage to our infrastructure - flood defences, rail infrastructure, road infrastructure - and we have got to assess that," Hammond said.
Mr Cameron later described the flooding as a tragedy and warned people to brace for more bad weather this week.
The prime minister is expected to meet residents, volunteers and troops in flood-hit parts of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire on Monday.
"I am hopeful that the work to strengthen long-term flood defences, and the emergency measures which have been put in place over recent days and weeks will mean that we can minimise the number of homes and businesses affected by the latest high water levels," he said.
"The recent flooding has been a tragedy for all those affected and my thoughts are with them. While it is of no comfort to those individuals, over 1.3 million other homes have been protected since December and we will continue to invest in flood defence measures to protect even more.
"Extensive efforts to protect and repair properties and infrastructure are ongoing by many thousands of people among agencies, the military and the emergency services. I speak for us all when I thank them profusely for their hard work."
