Government urged to reveal state of flood defences
- Published: 09/07/2007
The government is coming under increasing pressure from insurers to publish details of Britain's flood defences.
Leading insurers have been heavily criticised for refusing to offer cover to people living in certain high-risk areas, but as the clean-up effort gets underway, the industry has hit back.
Most insurers still offer cover to high risk homeowners, but they calculate the risk based on commitments made in 2002 about the protection offered by flood defences.
Many top insurers are now demanding an update on how well flood defences have been maintained in the years since that agreement.
Their argument is that if the flood defences are no longer as effective as they should be their calculation of risk will need to be re-assessed, which could be bad news for some homeowners.
"If defences are in need of maintenance they may be providing less protection than our information suggests," Alan Gairns of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) told the Sunday Telegraph.
"So we could have exposures in there that we might not want to have."
Insurers want access to information held by the Environment Agency on the current state of all flood defences.
According to the ABI, more than 27,500 homes and 7,000 businesses were affected by the recent floods, with the bill for insurers expected to rise to £1.5 billion.
Leading insurers have been heavily criticised for refusing to offer cover to people living in certain high-risk areas, but as the clean-up effort gets underway, the industry has hit back.
Most insurers still offer cover to high risk homeowners, but they calculate the risk based on commitments made in 2002 about the protection offered by flood defences.
Many top insurers are now demanding an update on how well flood defences have been maintained in the years since that agreement.
Their argument is that if the flood defences are no longer as effective as they should be their calculation of risk will need to be re-assessed, which could be bad news for some homeowners.
"If defences are in need of maintenance they may be providing less protection than our information suggests," Alan Gairns of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) told the Sunday Telegraph.
"So we could have exposures in there that we might not want to have."
Insurers want access to information held by the Environment Agency on the current state of all flood defences.
According to the ABI, more than 27,500 homes and 7,000 businesses were affected by the recent floods, with the bill for insurers expected to rise to £1.5 billion.