ABI/Government statement on flooding and insurance for England

Citation

(2009), "ABI/Government statement on flooding and insurance for England", Structural Survey, Vol. 27 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ss.2009.11027aab.002

ABI/Government statement on flooding and insurance for England

Article Type: Newsbriefs From: Structural Survey, Volume 27, Issue 1

Keywords: Buildings insurance, England, Flooding

The Government and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) have issued a joint statement on the importance of managing the risk from flooding to people and property. As the floods of 2007 demonstrated, flooding can have devastating impacts: it can cause loss of life, displace thousands of people, and can cause major economic and social dislocation. While flood defences, effective surface water management, flood warnings and other policies can reduce the risk from flooding, this risk can never be completely eliminated. In the UK, unlike in most other countries, insurance against the impact of flooding has been a standard feature of household and many small business insurance policies since the early 1960s. This enables households and small businesses to plan for and minimise the financial cost of flooding while insurers provide effective and efficient claims services and repair teams if flooding does occur. The ABI and the Government both want to ensure that the risk from flooding is managed effectively and that flood insurance remains as affordable and widely available as possible so that consumers and small businesses continue to be able to protect themselves from the financial cost of flooding. Since 2000, this has been achieved through a “statement of principles on flood insurance”: in the short term this commits insurers to continue to provide flood insurance under certain scenarios and the Government to manage the risk from flooding. The ABI and the Government have agreed to work together to provide a long-term solution that will enable flood insurance to continue to be as widely available as possible without distorting the market. To achieve this a number of detailed measures need to be taken. The statement of principles will not apply to any property built after 1 January 2009.