Advice on claiming compensation is being sent to dozens of homes and businesses devastated by flooding.

Southern Water is sending letters to people in Hastings who were affected by floods during the early hours of Monday, telling them to claim compensation through their own insurance policies.

The company says a failure at its Coombes pumping station could have caused the flood, sending water that should have been pumped out to sea through the town centre.

But it has yet to confirm whether or not it will compensate the 40 businesses and up to 12 homes drenched by up to 4ft of floodwater contaminated by sewage.

Customer contact manager Ben Green said in a letter: "I am unable to confirm at this early stage that any losses you may have suffered will be directly reimbursed by Southern Water and in the circumstances ask that you immediately contact your own insurers."

He said insurance companies would have to liaise with Southern Water's loss adjusters Cunningham Lindsey to discuss whether the company would foot the bill for the damage.

Lawyer and MP for Hastings and Rye Michael Foster said it was encouraging the company seemed to be accepting responsibility for the failure at the pumping station.

He said: "I get the impression that Southern Water is doing everything it can to remedy a problem that appears to be its responsibility.

"It doesn't seem to me that it is denying that what happened could have been its fault, which is encouraging."

John Hough, manager of the Priory Meadow Shopping Centre, said seven shops had been shut down by the flood on Monday and only two had reopened by yesterday.

He said: "The last time this happened, back in 2001, I believe the compensation case went to court and eventually the compensation was paid out.

"As far as I recall, that was down to a pump failure as well. Something has to be done to stop this happening again. It's intolerable and it's no way to run a business."

He said the cost of damage at the shopping centre would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Teams from Southern Water were still cleaning up in Hastings town centre yesterday and were trying to help people who were unable to go home as a result of flooding.