EU assembly approves flood damage cash

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Parliament agreed on Tuesday to give Britain 162.4 million euros (124.5 million pounds) in EU money to help repair damage from last year's floods.

Very heavy rainfall in June and July last year caused heavy flooding in many UK regions, causing direct damage estimated at over 4.6 billion euros, the parliament said in a statement.

It was Britain's first application to the EU's executive European Commission for financial help from the bloc's solidarity fund, which was launched in 2002.

"As I understand it, Britain will receive the second largest payment made since the solidarity fund was created," said Richard Corbett, a socialist EU assembly member for Yorkshire.

He said the money would go towards paying for the emergency operations that followed the flooding such as providing shelter and restoring essential utilities.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by David Brunnstrom)