Flooding toll on industry begins to mount

The industry is starting to feel the effects of the long winter of storms. Flooding issues on properties by the River Thames has led to a lower number of viewings expected admits John Frost of The Frost Partnership in Middlesex.

A slow start to the year mainly due to dreadful weather says Peter Olivey of Cole Rayment and White in Cornwall. The weather has held back some vendors from a launch explains Michael Dukes of Greenslade Taylor Hunt in Somerset.

A partner in one major national estate agency, which asked EAT not to disclose its identity, says: Every enquiry about a property quickly comes to the question has it flooded now or in the past' and if the answer is Yes or even Maybe, the phone goes down. And a single-office agent in the south west has told EAT that 12 of 14 viewings planned for February by prospective purchasers living outside of the region have been cancelled.

Meanwhile Philip Wilbourn, an environmental surveyor, has written to members of the House of Lords saying that the Environment Agency is wrong to believe that only six million homes are at risk of flooding.

Wilbourn's email to peers says this figure does not include factors such as rising ground water in chalk areas or rising surface water. Include those threats and he believes 10.9 million homes, a third of the UK's housing stock, may be at risk.

Home owners on the Somerset Levels, victims of flooding in 2012 and again over the past six weeks, have called on the Government to buy their properties at market value. There has been no response from MPs on the issue.

Now two national newspapers have delayed special property supplements from their early March slots because of lower-than-expected advertising from agents and house builders.