Online House Hunter: Rising concerns

The need to tackle flooding and insurance of homes is a growing concern

I WROTE a while ago about about flooding in the England and Wales (and my thanks to Andy Stevens for a link to that ‘foreign land’ of Scotland and its flood risk map!) Flooding is back in the news again today with the Public Accounts Committee wading in to the argument over who is responsible for flood protection.

Of more acute interest to homeowners are the scare stories that 200,000 homes will shortly struggle to get their homes insured against flood. There is currently a government agreement with the Association of British Insurers about insuring those areas at highest risk of flooding. That doesn’t run out until June 2013 but it becomes critical in July of this year of course because people will then be asking for 12 months’ insurance.

The ABI point out that the UK is relatively unusual in the world in offering flood insurance as part of an overall property insurance but it’s become an integral part of the house-buying process.

Less helpful – and rather scary – are the lists of towns that occasionally appear declaring which places in the UK are most at risk from flooding. One list, dating from 2007, included Birmingham! I can only presume they didn’t mean the whole of Birmingham. Even postcodes are rather vague in their approach but the online flood map is the best place to start if you want to check whether your current home or your potential new one is at risk.

My previous article included a number of links and there are a few more below. I’ll even include Scotland!

USEFUL LINKS:

• Public Accounts Committee: Flood report
• England and Wales Flood Map
• Scotland Flood Map
• Northern Ireland Flood Map
• Flood warnings for England and Wales
• Flood warnings for Scotland
• Be prepared for flooding
• Independent: Fears over flood defence funding
• Association of British Insurers
• Defra

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• Ponkbutler

  There’s government irresponsibility here, but also how the insurance industry now perceives its role. The old mutual principles of sharing risk and community support are long dead and it is now just financial speculation and betting on risk at the expense of ordinary people. It’s not appropriate for home insurance and even less so for health.

• Pacificweather

  The planning authorities who allowed building in a flood plain are culpable and should bear the cost where insurers will not insure. Whether I pay for the damage through increased insurance premiums or taxation is immaterial.