Dark cloud over severe weather cover in the UK

Harvey Jones in the Express (UK): The UK may be in the middle of a big freeze but the biggest long-term weather threat facing millions of homeowners is flooding. As more extreme weather is on the horizon, 5.2 million homes face a serious flood risk. Watching helplessly as your house fills with water is a harrowing experience and the clean-up operation can be costly.

Household insurance should foot the bill but many people in flood-prone areas could soon find their homes become uninsurable, following a dispute between the Government and insurance companies. Currently insurers are committed to cover flood-risk homes under a “statement of principles” agreement between the Association of British Insurers and the Government.

Under the deal, insurers will continue to cover properties where the risk of a flood is less than one year in 75. They will also cover properties facing an even greater flood risk, provided the Environment Agency publicly commits to bolstering local flood defences within five years. But insurers claim the Government has failed to boost flood defences and they may refuse to renew the agreement when it expires in June next year.

This week, an influential group of MPs published a damning report into the state of the nation’s flood defences. The Public Accounts Committee accused the Government of failing to “accept ultimate responsibility for managing the risk of floods”. ‘Homeowners might not be able to renew their policy this year’

Many homes could become uninsurable before that 2013 deadline expires, says Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance....

Brayford, telephone kiosk and signpost during the 2007 floods, shot by Nicholas Mutton, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license