Green GLA member Jenny Jones has renewed her calls on the Mayor of London to urgently review his policies and programmes with the resources that match the scale of threat from the risk of flooding.

She says she wants Boris Johnson to draw up 'an ambitious, costed programme of river restoration across the hundreds of kilometres of rivers in London, to reduce local and downstream flooding.

She also wants the mayor to take a leading role in ensuring the resources and budgets required to protect 24,000 homes in the capital that are at risk of river flooding are in place.

To date there are plans to protect 10,000 of these properties, subject to £100million funding being secured over 10 years.

Ms Jones, above, also calls for households at risk from surface water flooding to get advice and incentives to remove hard paving and impermeable surfaces that contribute to surface water run-off, and for the capital to copy New York’s scale of tree planting of 100,000 a year, to slow the impact of heavy rainfall

“At last the Mayor has spoken out on the flooding and the severity and length of extreme weather we have experienced in the last couple of months," she said, after last night's (Monday) meeting between Mr Johnson and emergency services and councils at City Hall.

"It is imperative his soundbites translate into flood reduction measures on a scale that matches the unprecedented weather challenges that London is facing.”

Mr Johnson told LBC this morning: "“I would say to people, looking at the weather, looking at the rainfall over the next few days it’s pretty clear this problem isn’t going soon.

“This is something that has been brewing for a while now so we’ve been preparing. The issue is going to be the same as everywhere else in the country. Clearly London has been much less severely affected."

Mr Johnson said 'maximum preparations' were under way to protect London from flooding.

A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor is already leading a pioneering programme to help boroughs and agencies identify and better manage surface water flood risk with measures such as rain gardens, street trees, and green roofs.

"Through the planning system, the Mayor regularly secures significant reductions in surface water run-off from larger new developments and is working to extend this through the boroughs. He is also overseeing an ambitious programme of urban greening including tree planting, new green spaces and park improvements which all improve drainage and reduce flood risk.”