Flooding left much of England under water during summer 2007

Firefighters, police, Environment Agency staff and the RAF are due to test how prepared Britain is for a major flood, in a large-scale exercise.

The UK’s rapid response flood plan is being trialled at the National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham, where severe flood conditions will be recreated.

Some 120 East Midlands firefighters are among emergency workers taking part.

The trial follows last year’s floods in parts of England and Wales that left 13 people dead and flooded 44,000 homes.

The BBC’s Anthony Bartram says the exercise will create “similar scenarios” to last year’s “flooded streets, people stranded in swirling water and casualties plucked to safety from submerged cars”.

Yorkshire and the Midlands were among the worst-hit last year, with the Humber and south-west England also severely affected.

The government has allocated ??34.5m to implement the recommendations of a review conducted into the flooding.

Sir Michael Pitt’s proposals included a 25-year plan to deal with the issue of flooding and tighter building regulations in flood-prone areas.