ABI calls for increased help with flooding problems
October 5, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Insurance
June and July of this year saw heavy rains and bad weather really take their toll in some areas of the UK, causing billions of pounds worth of damage to home and resulting in rocketing numbers of insurance claims that have cost the insurance companies dearly.
Claims for damage to home have been flooding in since June, and insurance companies have had to pay out millions of pounds each in some cases to cover the cost of the claims.
The Association of British Insurers is now calling on the government to provide increased protection against future flooding, stating that although the government has planned to put aside funding for this problem around £150 million more is needed to minimize the risk of this situation arising again in the future.
Stephen Hadrill, director-general of the ABI, stated: “The scale and impact of the floods has been massive. The cost to the industry of over 60,000 claims is approaching £3bn and more claims continue to come in.”
In a letter to the Environment Secretary, Hillary Benn, the Association of British Insurers stated that some drains and watercourses were blocked as the result of poor maintenance.
The letter stated: “Some defences will have been put under great pressure in recent events and will need to be checked and possibly strengthened.”
The ABI also stated that “an urgent review is needed of how best to maintain urban and rural drainage”.
Mr Hadrill said that this should include “whether expenditure is adequate, and how to co-ordinate better modelling of flood risk and planning of alleviation measures.” A number of areas of England were particularly hard hit in June and July as torrential rain caused major flooding across the country. As a result of the claim levels from the flooding insurance companies have had to hike up rate by up to 10% in some cases.
More info: www.abi.org.uk/floodinfo
Tom Smith
5th September 2007
