Building all new homes to be flood resistant and establishing who is responsible for drainage are two of the key proposals in a new report into last summer's devastating floods.

Sir Michael Pitt was commissioned by the Government to analyse what went wrong in the disaster last June and July, which left 13 people dead.

The floods forced thousands from their homes and caused £3 billion of damage in Yorkshire, Humberside, the Midlands and the West Country.

Nearly 5,000 families have still not been able to return, partly because their homes were constructed with the wrong building materials, Sir Michael said this morning as he prepared to publish his final report later today.

Times Archive 1953: National action for flood relief

Mr Churchill said all the resources of the country were mobilized to rescue and succour victims

• 1968: Good neighbours ease the burden in flood areas

• 1970: Danger of Humberside flooding

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“First of all, there’s the problem that when you do get water into a house because of flooding, if the water is there and it has to dry out, that can take a long period of time," he said. "That can take longer if the wrong building materials are used.”

Surface water which did not drain away caused much of the flooding last year, but tackling the standing water was made more complicated because often it was not clear who was responsible for the drains on high-risk sites.

There can be up to six owners responsible for one site. Sir Michael said that councils should compile electronic maps showing all ditches, streams and rivers, particularly around sites that are prone to flood.

"It is in businesses' commercial interest to provide more information about these high risk sites," he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

"It means, first of all, that these companies must join in the planning process for flood emergencies, share the appropriate information about their infrastructure, and cooperate with flood planners well before the next flood takes place."

Sir Michael's interim report last December warned that flood planning should be on a par with fighting terrorism or a flu pandemic.

His final report contains 92 recommendations on how the country could be better equipped for a flood, without spending much more money. It argues that the Government’s £800 million flood defence budget for 2010/11 was “about right”, but a big difference could be made by spending the money more wisely.

It also recommends a clearer chain of command, with roles clearly set out. Councils should be in charge of seeing that drain networks are kept in a good state of repair.

The Met Office and the Environment Agency should set up a joint centre to issue flood warnings, which should be written in much simpler language, said Sir Michael, as the public found it hard to understand and react to some of the technical jargon used last year.

Householders in flood risk areas should be registered with the Environment Agency to receive flood warnings, and have an emergency kit in their homes.

Water and power firms should do more to safeguard key sites like electricity sub-stations, power generation plants and water treatment works. Hundreds of thousands of homes were left without clean running water for over a week after a treatment works was inundated in Gloucestershire.

Sir Michael said: “Implementing these recommendations will need powerful, Cabinet-level leadership. We can be much better prepared. In fact, we are already better prepared now than a year ago.”

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said that the Government would learn the lessons of the floods.

“Sir Michael’s report is a wake-up call for us,” he told the Today programme. “We will of course look very carefully at all the recommendations in the report when he publishes it later today.”

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