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New planning reforms to cause more houses to be built in the in flood risk areas, insurers warn

Published 20th Sep 2011

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned that the draft National Planning Policy Framework could lead to a ‘rise in inappropriate developments’ in flood risk areas.

The ABI is reported today as opposing the changes to the planning system that are currently being consulted upon by the Government.

The Telegraph quotes the trade body as saying that the current ‘rigorous planning system’ stops builders from developing areas at risk of flooding.

The new framework, which is designed to cut red tape and make house-building easier, will replace more than 1,000 pages of planning regulations with just 52.

The draft also proposes a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’, which campaigners fear could give developers greater rights to concrete over the countryside.

The ABI, along with National Federation of Women’s Institutes, the National Trust and Campaign to Protect Rural England, urged ministers to rethink the plans.

Jonathan Dimbleby, a former president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, told The Daily Telegraph today that the wording of the reforms was ‘crass’.

The word ‘business appears in the document about 300 times, while ‘countryside’ is mentioned four times. ‘Once you have blighted the countryside, it’s done,’ he said.

Campaigners say that the reforms are in danger of falling into a trap of growth at any cost and that it is only Britain's strict planning laws that have prevented urban sprawl in recent decades.

ABI director general Otto Thoresen, writing in the The Daily Telegraph, said the draft framework could ‘lead to a rise in inappropriate developments in flood risk areas, with people struggling to get insurance’.

He added: ‘The result would not be stimulation of the economy but misery for people when their homes are flooded.’

Mr Thoresen said the flood risk was rising, with one in six homes and 185,000 businesses at risk from rising water levels. A further 350,000 properties are likely to be at risk of ‘significant flood’ by 2035.

He said: ‘The new planning framework must not make an already significant problem even worse.’

The proposals strip away current regional planning rules, putting the onus on local councils to decide where development can take place.

‘We are concerned that increased decision-making by local planning authorities, without proper strategic oversight, will not apply sufficiently robust scrutiny in flood risk areas,’ Mr Thoresen said.

‘Building developments in high flood risk areas will make flood insurance harder to access and, if available, more expensive.

‘A property that cannot get insurance is likely to be uninhabitable and unsellable. ‘This will put further pressure on Britain’s already high demand for housing, and hit the recovery of the house-building sector.’

The plans could even threaten the current status quo in which cover for flood damage is a standard feature of property insurance.

‘The widespread availability of flood insurance is the bedrock to ensuring long-term sustainable development,’ he said.

‘Insurers need to be sure that the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework safeguards against poor planning decisions.’

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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