Tens of thousands of homeowners face huge increases in their mortgage payments and may be unable to sell their homes in future because nervous banks are reclassifying their properties as being at risk of flooding — even if they live nowhere near a watercourse.
The Times has been told that banks have quietly been changing their lending policies after a report from the Bank of England in 2021 warned that they should act to limit the financial impact of climate change.
Since the report, lenders have been using a hotchpotch of mapping technology to gather data on the homes of their customers, ascertaining whether they are susceptible to flash flooding. Some homeowners say they have been told their property is at risk simply because they
