Builders defy risk of Midland floods; DEVELOPMENT: Uninsurable, unsaleable new homes in jeopardy.Byline: By Mail Reporter THOUSANDS of new homes in the West Midlands West Midlands, former metropolitan county, central England. Created in the 1974 local government reorganization, the county embraced the Birmingham conurbation and comprised seven metropolitan districts: Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell, Birmingham, Solihull, are being built on flood plains and are in danger of ending up "unsaleable, uninhabitable and uninsurable uninsurable Health insurance A high-risk person without health care coverage through private insurance who falls outside the parameters of risks of standard health underwriting practices. See Underwriting. ", it was claimed today. The Countryside Alliance The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as food, farming and country sports (hunting, shooting and angling). claimed the region faces a "time bomb" after discovering 3,655 new homes are earmarked to be constructed on flood plains or flood risk areas. Nearly 1,500 are in Birmingham and 840 in Sandwell, 284 in Stratfordupon- Avon and 100 in Nuneaton and Bedworth Nuneaton and Bedworth (nənē`tən), district (1991 pop. 115,300), Warwickshire, central England. The district primarily comprises the city of Nuneaton and the town of Bedworth. The district's growth was based on coal mining. . The alliance called for an audit to see whether they were safe and urged local authorities not to make what it described as short-sighted decisions in a bid to solve housing shortages. The warning comes as two reports accused the Government of underestimating the flood risk facing Britain. Last year's unprecedented summer downpours cost insurers pounds 3 billion, including pounds 700 million in the West Midlands, as severe flooding hit Shropshire Shropshire (shrŏp`shĭr, –shər), county (1991 pop. 401,600), 1,348 sq mi (3,491 sq km), W England. It is also sometimes called Salop. The county seat is Shrewsbury. , Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Changes to planning rules in 2006 forced local authorities to "consider carefully" before allowing developments in flood risk areas. But the Countryside Allowance, which obtained details from 22 local authorities in the West Midlands under the Freedom of Information Act, said it found in many cases that the go-ahead for building had been given in flood zones prior to 2006. Clare Rowson, Midlands regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said: "There is no point addressing the problem of affordable housing by building houses that are unsustainable because of flooding. "Allowing inappropriate development in flood risk areas is wrong, whenever the decision was made. The alternative is a time-bomb of thousands of uninsurable homes in the West Midlands." Earlier this year the Association of British Insurers warned that a third of the 3 million new homes the Government plans to build by 2020 could be on flood plains. Today, an ABI spokeswoman said: "We don't want people building on floodplains." In Birmingham, flood risk has increased as the number factories extracting huge quantities of water from underground declines. CAPTION(S): WIDESPREAD DEVASTATION... the Severn bursts its banks last summer. |
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