The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has met with government ministers in order to brief them on what the insurance industry's response to the recent spate of flooding will be.

Stephen Haddrill, ABI Director General, says that 99 per cent of affected homeowners have now been visited by a loss adjustor or an insurance company representative.

"Insurers are doing all that they can to deal with the impact of the floods, including getting people re-housed in temporary accommodation and making provision for early payments to help deal with immediate hardship," he commented after the meeting had taken place.

"We reiterated to the government our support for its recent announcement on increased public expenditure for flood defences by 2011, and our continuing commitment to the industry's Statement of Principles on flooding and insurance, which means that flood cover is widely available in areas of high-risk where flood defences are planned.

"We repeated our call for more details about planned spending between now and 2011. We urged ministers to proceed as soon as possible with this extra investment. We also agreed that the government would take urgent steps to address maintenance work on drainage."

Mr Haddrill finished by saying that he would keep ministers "updated" on the industry's efforts to re-house flooding victims and businesses.