Communities Secretary Eric Pickles today admitted the Government had made a "mistake" by failing to dredge rivers in a bid to prevent flooding.
The Tory minister issued an unreserved apology to people affected in Somerset, but hit out at the Environment Agency for providing poor advice on flooding.
Farmers and other figures in the south west repeatedly called on Downing Street and other Whitehall departments to dredge as long ago as six months ago, but funding for the operation was declined.
"We made a mistake, there's no doubt about that and we perhaps relied too much on the Environment Agency's advice," Mr Pickles told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.
"We recognise that we should have dredged and I think it is important now that we get on the process of getting those people back into their houses once we are able to really do some serious pumping."
Mr Pickles has criticised under-fire Agency chairman Lord Smith for refusing to say sorry for the failures when he was besieged by angry locals on visit to the area.
Asked if Prime Minister David Cameron should also apologise, Mr Pickles said: "I'll apologise. I'll apologise unreservedly.
"I am really sorry that we took the advice ... we thought we were dealing with experts."
The Agency was "fit for purpose" and its staff were doing a fantastic job on the ground dealing with the floods but there were serious questions about parts of its leadership, he said.
Mr Cameron is to chair the latest meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee this afternoon as forecasters warn of another week of storms.
Heavy rain and winds of more than 60mph will die down throughout today but the brief respite will be broken by another storm arriving tomorrow night.
And more storms will continue to batter Britain until the weekend, weather forecasters MeteoGroup predicted.
