Insurers have warned that a glut of potentially uninsurable housing is set to be built at new developments like Thames Gateway.
Insurers are concerned that pre-fabricated housing, which has been proposed as the solution for low-cost housing in the South East, may not be as resilient to flood and fire as traditionally-built homes.
In order to avoid problems, the ABI is working with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) to develop standards for pre-fabricated housing.
ABI head of household and property Jane Milne said pre-fabricated buildings were increasingly being used in low-cost residential developments, such as the Thames Gateway, as well as in commercial construction.
She said that work was being done by the ABI, BRE and CML to differentiate between around 800 new construction methods, to ensure that problems with getting insurance were not encountered after building.
"Some of them will be perfectly manageable and acceptable," Milne said.
But she warned that in other instances the new methods may have been developed by "fly-by-night" manufacturers.
