can't believe what I just heard on the news.......

[2shoes]

even after all the flooding the govement still can't rule out building houses on flood plains...........pratts

Where I live the river has burst its banks and flooded the flats being built on the site right next to it, not only will this show that any of the ground floor flats are going to flood on occassions but will the foundations be ok if they are flooded now before they are finished?

Thing is people will buy them and then complain when they flood - yet if the do a search they will realise what can happen.

Well we're a little island and we're busting at the seams.

The drains are ill equipped to deal with the current volume.

Well, none of them will ever have to live on one so why the hell not??
(It's the "let them eat cake" principle isn't it?)

I don't buy the small island thing, though.

Many countries in Continental Europe are far more densely populated and still don't build the way the UK does. I mean, that makes no sense as the government will end up picking up the bulk of the tab for such damage anyhow, so why allow it in the first place?

Also, why not start with all the properties lying empty? Raise those and rebuild on those sites or rennovate.

If the builders put cellars in each house they built it would stop the ground floor of the house being flooded, it also keeps the house warmer in winter and coller in summer - of course it is more expensive to build this way....

It also causes damage to the foundations more readily, ivy.

Building cellars is not going to prevent flooding.

In fact it could potentially make the situation worse as it using up more of the land, depth wise, and therefore removeing natural drainage.

Stilted houses would make more sense.

Then stilted house, at least you could park undernieth in the summer. Holland has lots of cellared houses though?

Oh I agree about restoring boarded up properties - what a waste

And how about clamping down on the number of properties people can own, many of which are holiday homes that sit empty for most of the year.

I mean, if there's that much need to housing and space is limited, why allow more and more folks to buy 'holiday homes' and second or third properties that drive prices up and exacerbate homelessness even further as locals, who provide services to teh tourists influx, are not able to buy or rent?

Totally agree with Expat - if second homes were outlawed, or at least made less attractive tax-wise, there would be a hell of a lot more homes to go around.
Also this buy-to-let lunacy whereby landlords bought up most of the cheaper housing stock then rented it back to the very people they'd just priced out of the market.
Re floodplains, I have to say that anyone who knowingly bought a house on a floodplain must be an idiot. Doesn't matter how much cheaper the houses were or how much more house they got for their money, at the end of the day that land was always likely to flood.

presumably it would be social housing - so thats ok then.

Only Holland and Italy are more densely populated than the UK per square mile/km.

What amazes me is how flood-plain new builds get insurance?

poor people and renters generally don't have insurance - or need it as a requirement anyway

Oh I so wish I could post on this thread but I can't in case I'm recognised. It makes me so

change your name then

Its a complete myth that we're a small island and bursting at the seams. Only 10% of the land is built up, that means that there is 90% still avaiable to build on, surely it cant all be bloody flood plains

"Re floodplains, I have to say that anyone who knowingly bought a house on a floodplain must be an idiot"

If only life was that simple.

We are living on an island. A fair chunk of the land therefore is coastal floodplain for starters.

The recent flooding is because of rainfall and has bugger all to do with living on a floodplain.

yeah ( re what saintgeorge said) so shut yer gobbins

There is also a problem with concreting gardens over for car parking spaces.

In many streets in the UK, 50% of the front gardens are now paved/concreted. Rainwater which would previously have been absorbed into the soil is now running straight through to the drainage system.

and you just know the housing stock that's built on floodplains will be the 'affordable housing'.

people DIE in floods.

but the message is: that's okay if you're poor because you were an idiot to live there, anyway.

thanks, Gordon!

yeaah yeah what she said

harrypotterdies - who are you?

expat -is that a direct quote from la Brown??

The man's actions speak louder than words, Pan.

His housing policy, for example.

Oh, yes, Labour's housing policy.