The building industry is risking billions of pounds of damage by ignoring the extreme weather events, higher temperatures and heavy rainfall to be expected in the next 50 years, a conference heard last week.

Planners, designers and constructors have so far failed to respond to climate change, Dr Chris Leubkeman said at the Smart Development conference at the Lowry in Manchester.

“Many buildings are still being designed based on ideology and technology from the 1960s, despite incredible advances in both our knowledge of the way humans are affecting the world's climate and of the ways in which we can mitigate these effects,” he said.

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