Britain’s largest insurer warns that homes currently under construction in England’s flood-risk zones face becoming uninsurable within decades. Aviva chief executive Amanda Blanc projected that 115,000 new properties will rise in flood areas over the next decade, urging planners and housebuilders to reconsider development locations.
The warning from Aviva chief executive Amanda Blanc brings a stark economic reality to the nation’s ambitious housing goals. Speaking on the BBC’s Big Boss Interview podcast, Blanc stated that the flooding threat was absolutely increasing
and cautioned that England was for sure
building properties that might reach a point where insurance coverage becomes impossible.
That future outlook stems from a projected trajectory: if current building patterns hold steady, developers will place 115,000 new homes directly into designated flood zones over the coming decade. According to Aviva research, roughly one in nine homes built between 2022 and 2024 already sits at medium or high risk of flooding.
Environment Agency Exposure Data and Aviva’s Research Methodology
The broader national exposure figures underline the scale of the challenge facing property owners and insurers alike. The Environment Agency calculates that approximately 6.3 million homes and businesses across England currently face exposure to flooding from rivers, the sea, surface water, or a combination of those sources. That number represents about one in five properties.
As climate change intensifies, the agency warns that the proportion could climb to one in four—affecting roughly 8 million properties—by the mid-century. To map out the risks for newly constructed housing, Aviva combined Ordnance Survey AddressBase records with Environment Agency flood-risk data at the constituency level. That analysis was conducted between December 2025 and January 2026, utilizing agency datasets published initially in January 2025.
The insurer’s findings indicate that nearly a third of new homes built in 2024 will face some risk of flooding by 2050, with one in seven positioned at medium or high risk. At the same time, the Met Office noted that extreme weather patterns are shifting rapidly. Record-breaking wet winters like the one observed in the UK during 2023-24 have transitioned from once-in-80-year occurrences into once-in-20-year events under current global warming levels.
Property Resilience Measures and Government Planning Policy
Addressing the crisis requires more than simply halting construction in vulnerable spots; it demands a fundamental shift in how properties are built when development borders flood zones. Blanc emphasized that builders and homeowners can implement specific structural adaptations to minimize vulnerability.
You can do all sorts of different things to your property to make it more or less vulnerable to flood.
Amanda Blanc, Chief Executive, Aviva
Those resilience strategies include utilizing bricks equipped with self-closing air vents, installing stainless steel kitchens instead of traditional wooden furniture, and raising electrical plug points halfway up interior walls rather than near the floor.
We’ve put a record amount of investment into protecting nearly 900,000 properties against billions of pounds of flooding damage. Meanwhile our planning proposals will help ensure that housebuilding will not go ahead in areas that are at risk of flooding, helping us to build 1.5 million homes without compromising on safety.
Spokesperson, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
However, records from the Environment Agency show that friction remains between policy and execution. In its report covering the year ending March 31, 2025, the agency tracked 301 homes that were granted planning permission despite explicit agency advice warning against flood risks.
Broader Economic Warnings Ahead of the October Budget
Beyond housing and climate exposure, Blanc used her wider media appearances to caution the administration of Chancellor John Healey against policy speculation ahead of the upcoming budget on October 28. As a major private pension provider, Aviva registered turbulent customer behavior driven by rumors of tax changes.
The insurer recorded pension withdrawal rates running at 30 times normal levels over the past year as savers rushed to access tax-free lump sums amid uncertainty. Blanc warned that such moves often trigger long-term regret because once you take your tax-free lump sum out, you can’t put it back in.
Yet as insurers, planners, and policymakers grapple with the expanding boundaries of flood exposure, the intersection of national housing targets and long-term insurability remains a defining test for future community safety.
