Reuters
So the best way to deal with lack of supply is to build houses. But it turns out Britain's government built around 10,000 houses that are in massive danger of being flooded so badly, you won't be able to live in them.
You read that correctly.
According to the Financial Times' analysis of government figures, "one new home in every 14 built in 2013-14 - the most recent year for which data are available - was constructed on land that has a significant chance of flooding, either from a river or the sea."
The FT said that out of the 138,000 homes built in total, that data point suggests that 9,700 properties were built on floodplains. It goes without saying that having houses built on floodplains means that these structures are at a major risk of being flooded.
A government spokesperson responded to the FT and said it "put in place strong safeguards to stop inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding."
However, the release of the analysis doesn't come at a good time for the Conservative-led government.
Prolific flooding has caused devastation across much of the north and north west of England over the past month and is estimated to cost the
According to a report released over the weekend by financial services firm PwC, the economic losses, which includes insurance losses, caused by flooding from Storm Desmond and Storm Eva are already around £1 billion ($1.49 billion), but could increase more than 50% if heavy rain continues to fall as expected.
Prime Minister David Cameron has already come under pressure to increase spending on flood defences after criticism was launched against him and the Conservative party for not placing enough safeguards to prevent the devastation from happening and for cutting budgets in the relevant departments, as reported by the BBC.