More homes 'at risk of flooding'
An insurance trade body has warned that the number of homes at risk from coastal flooding could soar by 40% by 2050.
Climatologists predict sea levels on the eastern side of the country could rise by 40cm (15.75 inches) during the coming four decades, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said.
It warned that a rise of this level would put an additional 130,000 homes along the east coast at risk from coastal flooding, a 40% rise on the current number, with properties in Lincolnshire, Norfolk and around the Thames Estuary particularly at risk.
The ABI published a series of measures it wants the Government to introduce to ensure that flood insurance remains widely available to the more than two million homeowners and businesses in areas that are known to be at risk.
Insurers have pledged to continue to provide cover to existing customers whose properties are at risk of flooding until 2013, as long as adequate flood management is in place.
The ABI called on the Government to set targets and give the Environment Agency a statutory duty to reduce flood risk.
It also wants to see local authorities made legally responsible for assessing and reducing surface water flooding and producing management plans on the issue.
Other measures the group would like to see included in the Government's final Flood and Water Management Bill are a new approach to flood risk management, including regulating reservoirs, and community action to help reduce flood risk and to assist homeowners and businesses that cannot be defended from flooding.
Stephen Haddrill, the ABI's director general, said: "Last week's draft Flood and Water Management Bill is a vital first step towards implementing the recommendations of the Pitt Review to make homeowners in England and Wales safer from flooding.
"We need a rapid political consensus to deliver reform. We urge all parties to work together, to ensure that this Bill delivers better flood protection to the millions of homeowners and businesses at risk of flooding in England and Wales."