The Governments plans to build 3 million homes by 2020. By 2010-11 more than 70,000 affordable homes a year would be built, of which 45,000 would be social homes and the rest shared ownership. This is indeed good news as we do need new homes, especially more affordable housing to stabilise house prices. Unfortunately, many of these new homes are to be built in flood risk areas, and the risk of flooding is only going to

get worse in the future, if we are to believe the forecasts of climate change.

But is incorporating traditional flood defence measures enough to cope with this new building challenge? It is important that we act now to build an understanding of severe flood risk into the planning for these new houses at the earliest stage and this must include housing design as well.

We all know how traditional building structures were drastically inadequate at preventing water ingress, resulting in massive damage in personal and financial loss. Insurance companies not surprisingly now include flood risk as an increasingly important factor in underwriting and pricing.

The floods caused by the wettest June on record have been estimated to cost the insurance industry over £3 billion; as an example, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) says the Thames Gateway developments will be uninsurable unless special measures are taken to minimise the flood threat. They have said that the government’s plans to build 85,000 homes must be modified to include safeguards such as only occupying homes above first-floor level due to the high risk of flooding, which is an unprecedented step.

So, why are the developers still building standard housing models in these high risk areas? Why is the government approving developments on these high risk areas without insisting on liaising with expert design teams such as welters organisation worldwide who have investigated and developed solutions for building systems in extreme risk areas? It is time for a new approach and a new building ethos that will realistically provide protection from the inevitability of the flood waters and the damage and loss of life that result.