Advertisement

 

 

Whether they are the first inconvenient realities of the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ of climate change or simply freak occurrences of Biblical proportions, leading insurers are urging Britain’s homeowners to ensure that their properties are covered, after floods have swept parts of Britain for the second year running. As Nationwide’s John Baker, Head of Insurance, warned earlier this month, "the terrible flooding we have seen across the UK has shown just how important it is to have adequate home buildings and contents insurance.”

 

The Government faced widespread criticism over the crisis last year, and Rachael Stiles of fairinvestment.co.uk has argued that “until [they]do more to prevent floods from damaging people's homes, insurers are unlikely to bring down premiums and excesses". And there are early signs that the Government is beginning to act in accordance with the findings of the Pitt Review and an EFRA Select Committee Enquiry, both set up in the wake of the 2007 floods. The Environment Agency cites the completion of 34 new flood defences and inspection of 8,500km of existing defences, and a dramatic expansion of its flood warning system.

 

However, until the Government’s raft of protective measures becomes the ark it hopes to achieve, the risk of flood damage remains a serious one, with an estimated £214 billion of land and assets still currently at risk from flooding in the UK, according to Homecheck. And the Met Office has already predicted that this year’s washout summer is set to continue with further rain through September, making it increasingly important for homeowners to protect their properties sooner rather than later.

 

The Environment Agency website provides extensive information, with up-to-date warnings, as well as practical guidelines: from preparing your home through to emergency procedures in the event of a flood and how to ‘get your home back to normal’ after the waters have subsided. There is even a guide to flooding for older people (Noah, after all, “was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth”).

 

But despite the Government’s long and short term efforts, Stiles’ warns – in light of worrying reports that many homeowners are neglecting to insure their properties – that “with so many homes at risk due to poor flood defences, home insurance really is a necessity that should not be foregone."