More houses are being built in flood-prone areas and more urban sites are being paved over despite a rising risk of flooding, the Government's climate advisers have warned.

The Committee on Climate Change report on how prepared the UK is for global warming said the country was close to the limit in coping in areas such as water supplies and flooding - and climate change could push it over the edge.

The UK could be increasingly vulnerable to expected climate impacts including more floods, heatwaves and droughts, because the risks are not being taken fully into account in decisions on areas such as planning and water supplies, it said.

The adaptation sub-committee's chairman, Lord John Krebs, said there was a need to "gear up" from current awareness of the threat of climate change to taking action, for example by bringing in water meters to encourage people to save water.

Last year four firms - Severn Trent Water, Northumbria Water and Essex and Suffolk Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water and Thames Water - warned they would struggle to meet demand in case of drought. Only 8% of areas in England are at risk of water shortages in case of severe drought, but the report warned this could increase to 45% by 2035.

Lord Krebs ruled out the kind of phase-out of conventional equipment seen with light bulbs, in which incandescent lamps have been outlawed in favour of energy saving bulbs, saying that water meters would provide the necessary incentives for change.

He said: "The Government should roll out meters. We want to incentivise people to adopt those measures that would save them money and save the country water."

Meanwhile, data on nine local authorities, South Gloucestershire, East Riding, Tewkesbury, Stockton, Fareham, Hull, Gosport, Gloucester and Southampton, examined in light of their vulnerability to flooding, showed that in all but Southampton, development in at-risk areas had increased over the past 10 years.

And in four areas, Hull, East Riding, South Gloucestershire and Stockton, the rate of development was higher in flood-risk areas than across the district as a whole.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said: "The increasing frequency of extreme weather events like the severe winter we had and the second dry spring are stark reminders that we must adapt and build resilience to face the challenge of climate change, as the Adaptation Sub-Committee's second assessment makes clear. But our response cannot be business as usual. That's why the Government is developing the national adaptation programme to help businesses and communities minimise the risks."