MORE than 7,000 homes in Warrington are at significant risk of flooding – the seventh highest number in the country, according to information released yesterday.

New research has identified the top 20 flood risk areas in Britain and shows a surge in the number of homes that could be affected.

Analysis of official data by Channel 4’s Dispatches revealed 8.8% of homes in Warrington are at “significant risk”.

Boston, in Lincolnshire, topped the UK list, with an astonishing 57% of homeowners in danger of being flooded.

In the programme, due to be aired at 9pm tonight, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, Baroness Young, calls on insurers to refuse insurance to houses built on flood plains against advice.

Dispatches: Britain Under Water reports that an increasing number of homes are being built on Britain’s flood plains.

This has led to a surge in the number of homes at “significant risk” of flooding – described as having a one-in-75 chance of flooding in any given year.

Bob Barr, executive member for planning, regeneration and climate change on Warrington council, says the town has historically been a high flood risk area. “There has been a long-standing recognised risk because the land is very flat and has the River Mersey running through it. The council works very closely with the Environment Agency to assess this risk.

“All planning applications for new houses in the borough have to be referred to the Agency for approval, so new homes will not get consent if they fail to pass the assessment.

“The problem we now have to tackle is the effect climate change is having, because the assessments are based on historic patterns.

“This is something we are working on with other agencies at the moment.”

The programme reports that, in addition to the potential threat to homes, more than 2,000 energy installations are at significant risk of flooding.

It raises concern over whether the authorities are setting aside adequ- ate resources to battle the threat.

Baroness Young suggests insurers could help the situation by hardening their stance against those opting to live in new builds in flood- risk areas.

She tells Dispatches: “Many of the properties that flooded in the summer were built in the ’60s and ’70s and the ’80s, and we’ve got a huge backlog of that in the flood plain now, and we don’t want to increase that by building any more.

“We’d like the ABI to be tougher – we’d like the insurance companies to be tougher and to simply refuse to insure properties built on the flood plain against our advice.

“But we’ve not persuaded the insurance industry en masse to do that.”

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