The body has slammed the government’s plans for three million new homes, claiming that a third of these have been outlined for high-risk flood areas.
It also lambasted the decision to ride roughshod over warnings from the Environment Agency that 13 major developments would be highly susceptible to flooding.
Speaking at the Architects Journal conference, Justin Jacobs, ABI’s assistant director of property, warned: “The government’s ambitious housing plans are in jeopardy unless we reduce the flood risk.
In the last year, 13 major developments have been given the go ahead despite Environment Agency advice on the flood risk.
Where a local authority plans to ignore flood risk advice, the government should step in and review the proposals and be compelled to publish its decision.
Insurers want to continue to provide flood cover, but poor planning decisions will lead to more homes becoming unsaleable, uninsurable and uninhabitable.”
The warning comes at the same time as Sir Michael Pitt, author of the review into the floods last Summer, insisted that the government’s flooding disaster management was ‘woefully inadequate’.
Pitt told the Local Government Association that there was no co-ordination over the threat from surface water flooding and called for more resources to help prepare and warn people over the potential risk.
He said: “We need to invest more in weather forecasting so that we can identify not just the county but the town or locality where the flooding is going to take place.
"We need to have a much clearer understanding of which streets are likely to be flooded and therefore what action can be taken.”
