By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - The government must re-work its plans for new housing in light of the worst floods in Britain in almost 60 years, environmental experts say.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) urged ministers to put in place infrastructure to "deal with the worst of climate change" before it starts new house-building projects.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has put affordable housing at the top of his government's agenda by announcing plans to build three million new homes by 2020.

Nick Reeves, executive director of CIWEM, said it would be irresponsible to think that extreme weather events like those that have hit central, western and southern England in recent days would not become more frequent.

"Before the government presses ahead with plans for new housing on the huge scale suggested, it must ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to deal with the worst of climate change," he said.

"Scratch the surface of flooding-related problems and it comes back to the way we live our lives.

"Unless there is action on population and consumption, and unless we realise that building thousands of new homes on land at risk of flooding is putting people's lives at risk, then we are storing up problems for future generations that could de-stabilise towns and cities, and render the goal of sustainable communities unattainable."

He urged the government to focus on developing brownfield sites and called for a "strategic land review".