FLOOD defence spending must rise to £1 billion a year over the next decade to cope with the rising threat of flooding, insurers and campaigners have urged.

There should also be an end to building new homes in flood-risk areas, to prevent communities living in “constant fear of flooding”, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said, as it launched the Flood Free Homes campaign.

Despite planning rules, some 20,000 new properties are being built on the floodplain each year, including 4,000 in places where there is significant risk of flooding, the ABI warned as it called for a “zero tolerance” approach to the problem.

Stopping house-building in the floodplain has high support, with nine out of ten people (90 per cent) believing residential housing developers should be completely banned from building in high-risk areas, according to a poll carried out for the launch of the campaign.

The Flood Free Homes campaign, which is supported by Friends of the Earth, the National Flood Forum, the Know Your Flood Risk campaign and the Property Care Association’s Flood Protection Group, aims to raise the issues of long-term flood defence investment and land and water management.

It comes a year after parts of the UK were hit by devastating flooding as the country was battered by a series of extreme winter storms.

The survey of 2,500 people by YouGov for the ABI found that flood defences topped the list of environmental issues that should attract Government spending, with more than a third (36 per cent) saying it was the most important recipient of funding.

And almost three-quarters (73 per cent) thought that local authorities were primarily responsible for ensuring new homes are built in suitable locations, with an acceptable level of flood risk.