Abi calls for 25-year flood plan to ensure flood insurance remains "widely available and affordable

The Association of British people Insurers is today goad the authorities to help prevent a repetition of this summer's devastating floods through the creative activity of a subject flood scheme.

The floods, which hit homes in the north east and south west of the state in June, affected an estimated 27,500 homes and 7,000 businesses, at a cost of £1.5one million million. The ABI estimated at the time that about a one-fourth of the homes affected were not insured person, and fig from Moneysupermarket.com showed that home insurance applications went up by 300 per cent in the calendar month following the floods.

Nevertheless, insurance companies were still hit hard, with Aviva, the company behind Norwich Union, having to pay out about £175million in insurance claims.

The ABI says that though insurers are still prepared to insure against floods, more needs to done to prevent them in the first place, otherwise policies will become unaffordable for some due to the massive risk the insurers will be pickings on.

"This summertime’s devastating floods high spot the urgent need for a long-term strategy based about more investing, national coordination and good land use planning," said Sir Leslie Stephen Haddrill, manager General of the ABI.

“Insurers want to continue to provide flood insurance. The right determination from the authorities will ensure that flood insurance remains widely available and affordable in the UK.”

The ABI is career for a single national body to be responsible for flood direction, and an investing programme that reflects climate alteration and the real flood risks from rivers, coasts and drain. It also wants to see stronger planning controls to ensure that new developments are not built in high flood-risk areas where possible.

In support of its calls for a subject plan, the ABI has today also released the consequence of an sentiment survey taken from those life in Yorkshire and Humberside, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire - the areas worst affected by the summer floods.

Sixty-seven per cent of residents said they were affected by the floods, and almost the same number – 61 per cent – believe they will suffer flooding again unless something is done, with residents saying that an overhaul of drainage systems is the most urgent measure now needed to reduce the risk of future flooding.

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