A major reform of how we plan development within flood risk areas is under way. Les Hall, left, of Northumbrian Water, and Adrian Field, right, of the House Builders' Federation report on how the changes affect their organisations in terms of how they deal with surface water run-off.
THIS week saw the latest additions to what seems to be an ever-growing list of winter flooding victims.
Hardly a winter seems to go by without another community suffering the destructive forces of nature.
In November 2000 the place names that became familiar to us in the North-East were Ponteland, South Church, Bishop Auckland and Skinningrove. These communities were among the most severely hit locations.
It has been suggested that more than 5pc of the population in England live lower than five metres above sea level, including parts of our major cities such as York and London. It has also been suggested that about 7pc of the land and built up areas are likely to flood at least once in every 100 years. Despite this, for most of the population in our area the risk of flooding remains far from their thoughts. This is not down to complacency; it is far more to do with the geology and topography of the North-East and the wisdom of our ancestors in the where they chose to build.
More than 43pc of the region's population live within the Tyne and Wear conurbation and are afforded the protection of the steep river gorges of the two major rivers and high sea cliffs at the coast.
Not only was this important in terms of defence, transport and trade but also flood protection.
Ancestral settlers of the North-East over the past 2,000-3,000 years have used rivers to their advantage for living, industry and leisure. They learnt to respect the rivers and the advantages of living on or near to a river outweighed the risk of flooding every 50 -100 years.
This is in contrast to the choices available for those early settlers in Yorkshire, the Midlands and South West, who in order to gain the same advantages had to develop within the wide flood plains of the major rivers.
Their residents have been suffering ever since.
The latest Meteorological Office research on Global Warming, or "Climate Change" as they now refer to it, is certainly food for thought.
The change in terminology is crucial.
Rather than our grandchildren stocking up on factor 25 sun cream, it seems far more likely that they will be investing in wellingtons surrounded by sand bags unless we act now.
It seems that the "warm, wet westerly winds" which dominate our climate are not only going to get warmer but they're also going to get significantly wetter - particularly in winter as we have seen over recent years.
When this is combined with the increased collection of rainwater from development and public expectations that despite heavy rainfall, all gardens, drives and highways should be free from water there can only be one inevitable result - an increase in flooding. The whole issue of surface water collection and management has become an ever increasing topic for discussion.
The alarm bells have certainly rung with the Government who have launched a series of radical changes to the way local authorities and the Environment Agency consider flood risk in the planning of development sites.
A number of other changes are also being considered that affect the way developers and Northumbrian Water plan for the future to ensure that storm water run-off from sites is not increased as a result of development.