The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has called for more information to be made available about a property’s risk of flooding when looking to buy a home.

The trade body says its most recent survey of 2,000 adults found that nine out of ten people agreed that flood risk information should be included on material about properties for sale.

At present, no property search website includes flood risk information for the location of properties they list despite having data on school catchment areas to most commonly read newspapers.

Huw Evans, ABI Director General, said one in six homes is at risk of flooding and more needed to be done to make flood risk a part of the home buying process.

“At the moment, information on whether a property is at risk of flooding comes too late, often when people have already invested hundreds if not thousands of pounds in the conveyancing process,” said Huw.

"That’s why we are calling for those who sell properties to include new traffic light warnings on flood risk in a property’s area. You can currently get more information about what paper your new neighbours might read than if a particular property might be at flood risk.”

Rory Stewart, Floods Minister, added: “We are making more data and technology available to help people plan and prepare for potential floods, such as the Environment Agency’s free Flood Warnings Service and our advanced flood mapping and forecasting."

The ABI wants to work with estate agents, property websites and the Environment Agency to ensure that more information is made available to home buyers.