Nationwide stops lending on some flood-risk properties

Some banks have said they will lend if there is adequate home insurance, although this may change when UK government subsidies end. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

Britain’s biggest building society has stopped granting mortgages on some properties where there is a high risk of flooding but said this affected only “a very limited number” of homes.

Nationwide’s head of property risk, Rob Stevens, said the lender used mapping technology to identify which homes were vulnerable to flooding, and it would decline to grant a mortgage to buy a property it deemed to be at high risk.