Insurance talks for UK flood victims

Yorkshire Dales Country News (UK): With thousands of home owners in flood-risk areas facing the possibility of having their home insurance policies withdrawn in three years time, Government officials and representatives of the insurance industry are working on a new insurance “road map” which will provide some sort of cover.

This will replace an emergency agreement drawn up with the Labour government after a series of disastrous floods over the past few years had meant that tens of thousands of properties in risk areas would become virtually un-insurable and therefore extremely difficult - or even impossible - to sell. That voluntary agreement expires in 2013.

Officials of the environment department Defra, the insurance industry, the National Flood Forum and the Environment Agency met at the weekend to draw up this new road map, which could mean that although householders in at-risk areas will have to pay heftier premiums, the Government would intervene to ensure that they would not be black-listed.

…Flooding in parts of the Yorkshire Dales has become a major concern in recent years for a mixture of factors, writes our countryside commentator John Sheard....

Michael Wilson of York shot this outside his house in June 2007, where the Rivers Ouse and Foss are usually in the right hand corner of the shot. Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.