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. His comments in an interview with Bloomberg could spark renewed debate about what will happen when the UK government’s subsidised flood insurance scheme ends in 15 years’ time. A fortnight ago it emerged that UK weather-related home insurance claims had hit a new record, with flooding accounting for half of last year’s £573m total bill. Some big mortgage lenders, including Barclays and NatWest, have previously made clear they will still grant mortgages for properties where there is judged to be a high risk of flooding, provided that adequate home insurance is in place. However, a former Barclays chief executive has warned that “further consideration would need to be given” regarding the suitability of granting mortgages on high-risk properties in future years, particularly once the official Flood Re subsidised cover scheme...