The government will continue to build houses on flood plains as long as the "proper defences" are in place, says Housing Minister Yvette Cooper.
Housing Minister Yvette Cooper is unveiling the government's plans to build three million new homes by 2020.
She invited bids for five new "eco towns" and said, from 2016, all new homes would have to be "zero carbon".
Strict protection for the Green Belt would not be changed but there would be work across government to find more brownfield sites.
She had earlier said some new homes would be built on flood plains, subject to apropriate flood defences.
In a statement on the Housing Green Paper, she said it was unfair that so many first time buyers had to rely on financial help from family and friends.
Growth points
She said two million of the three million new homes would be built by 2016, but she said there must be no return to the mistakes of the 1960s, when "quality was sacrificed in the name of speed".
New homes would be built in the north as well as the south, and 45 councils have already come forward with proposals for sites for new "growth points" - sites where new homes will be built.
She said the Ministry of Defence had already put forward six brownfield sites, with the potential to build 7,000 new homes.
Earlier Ms Cooper said the government would continue to build houses on flood plains as long as the "proper defences" are in place.
The Tories say it will put more homes at risk, following extensive flooding in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
The Tories say it will put more homes at risk, following extensive flooding in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
A draft of the Housing Green Paper, due to be published in full later, says it is "not realistic" to prevent all future development in flood-risk areas.
Ms Cooper said house building critics were "playing politics" with floods.
Ms Cooper said house building critics were "playing politics" with floods.
She told the BBC: "We've introduced very tough rules now to clamp down on house-building in very high flood risk areas."
She told the BBC: "We've introduced very tough rules now to clamp down on house-building in very high flood risk areas."
"Those are tougher than they've ever been."
"Those are tougher than they've ever been."
'Proper protection'
But she told the BBC that homes could still be built on flood plains: "I think the only thing we are saying is obviously you can't rule out new housing being built somewhere like the city of York which is in a flood plain.
But she told the BBC that homes could still be built on flood plains: "I think the only thing we are saying is obviously you can't rule out new housing being built somewhere like the city of York which is in a flood plain.
"You know, it was built by the Romans in a flood plain. Downing Street - 10 Downing Street is in a flood plain. So if you've proper protection and if you've got proper defences in place, you know new homes have to be safe."
"You know, it was built by the Romans in a flood plain. Downing Street - 10 Downing Street is in a flood plain. So if you've proper protection and if you've got proper defences in place, you know new homes have to be safe."
This rush to build without thought is something that we will all regret Eric PicklesShadow communities secretary Send us your comments
Ms Cooper has said the Environment Agency can stop new homes being built if they judged the flood risk to be too high and not acceptable.
But shadow communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles said: "Gordon Brown has to accept the inconvenient truth that if you build houses on flood plains it increases the likelihood that people will be flooded.
"This rush to build without thought is something that we will all regret."
Robust policy
A draft of the green paper, leaked to the BBC, says that 10% of England's population lives in areas at risk of flooding and warns inappropriate development could "exacerbate flood risks".
But it goes on: "While physical defences remain the central defence for managing flood risk, flood defence infrastructure cannot be continuously expanded."
Parts of Worcestershire were badly hit by flooding
It says councils must put in place "robust planning policy" that takes into account a possible increase in rainfall in the future due to climate change.
The Conservative MP for Tewkesbury, Lawrence Robertson, said plans to build extra houses north of Gloucester and Cheltenham were "absolute madness".
He said: "If we go ahead with that at some stage in the future people will lose their lives... if we go ahead with that kind of building."
'Badly flooded'
Martin Horwood, Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, said any building plans for the future should be reviewed.
"I've seen houses that have been very badly flooded in Cheltenham which were basically built on the course of brooks. Those looked harmless enough when there weren't floods around," he said.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who visited Gloucester on Monday morning, said later that advice about new building was being "tightened up".
Even the best flood defences can be overwhelmed Hilary BennEnvironment secretary
The Environment Agency would be asked for advice in all cases where there was a "question mark over a particular area" and was "determined to make their views known where any housing development could be at risk of possible flooding".
Meanwhile Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, who is due to make a Commons statement later, denied that cuts to the Environment Agency's budget were to blame for the effect of the flooding.
Green paper
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the agency's capital budget for investment in flood defence had increased from £300m to £600m since 1997 and would rise to £800m by 2010/11.
"The government recognises the need to invest more in flood defence," Mr Benn told the BBC.
"But you need to recognise, with the scale of water we have seen coming out of the sky, running down the river systems, even the best flood defences can be overwhelmed."
Mr Brown has said he wants to build three million new homes by 2020 and pledged to ensure that 70,000 constructed each year are affordable.
