The chairman of the Environment Agency is heading to meet flood victims in the north of England after arriving back in the country following a sunshine holiday in the Caribbean.
Sir Philip Dilley spoke briefly to reporters as he collected a few personal items from his flat in an Edwardian mansion block in the Marylebone area of London.
Asked if he had a good Christmas, while swathes of the country were battling against devastating flood waters, Sir Philip said he was visiting Yorkshire today and would be "very happy to speak" with people when he got there.
His return to the UK comes after criticism over his decision to holiday in Barbados at a time when the country faces some of the worst floods it has experienced in decades.
The Environment Agency released a statement saying he had spent Christmas with his family on the Caribbean island, but would be back soon.
A spokesman said Sir Philip had been in "regular contact" with the body regarding its response to the current situation.
He added: "He has been in Barbados with his family. We are expecting him back in the UK in the next 24 hours and an early priority will be to visit those who have been affected by the flooding in the north of the country."
The agency also highlighted that Sir Philip visited Cumbria earlier in the month, in the aftermath of floods that affected the area following Storm Desmond.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel