Workshop to look at lessons learned from UK flooding
People living in flood risk areas could soon face unaffordable home insurance costs, warns a new industry report.
A poll of 200 insurance professionals reveals 90 per cent expect insurance costs to rise for flood danger zones unless spending on defences is upped.
Currently 2.2 million UK properties are in flood risk areas.
The research by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) also reveals 61 per cent of those in the insurance industry expect competition to push up prices for homes in flood affected areas – as the practice of safe areas subsidising at-risk regions is dropped.
Price pressures have come from the increasing numbers of price comparison sites, explained John Maitz, vice president at CSC, which should lead to firms looking at individual homes’ risks and not the whole market.
“For households on flood plains these developments augur very poorly indeed,” he told Reuters.
This summer’s floods cost over £3 billion with 130,000 claims, including 100,000 home insurance and 10,000 motor insurance claims, figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) reveal.
The ABI is now calling on the government to increase its flood defence spending.
“The insurance industry is helping tens of thousands of people affected by flooding this summer, but the government has now failed to play its part,” said Stephen Haddrill, the director general of the ABI.
“Millions of homeowners and businesses around the country have been let down by the government’s failure to commit sufficient money to new and improved flood defences.”