The cost of Britian's summer 2007 floods

The Environment Agency (UK): The devastating floods of summer 2007 cost the country a total of GBP 3.2bn, including more than GBP 2bn to homeowners and businesses and 400,000 lost pupil days, a report from the Environment Agency revealed today. The report, published some two months since the devastating Cumbria floods in November, illustrates the wide-ranging and substantial costs of flooding.

In the most comprehensive review of the economic impact of the 2007 floods, the Environment Agency calculated that households and businesses incurred the majority (some two-thirds) of the total. The average cost was between £23,000 and £30,000 per flooded home but a quarter of homeowners were not fully covered by insurance. Some 30 per cent of households were forced to relocate to temporary accommodation, one third of which for more than a year. The average cost incurred per flooded business was between £75,000 and £112,000, with 95 per cent of companies covered by insurance.

The summer 2007 floods also caused about £660m in damage to critical infrastructure and essential services. Water supplies and treatment plants were the most affected, followed by roads, electricity supplies, agriculture and disruption to schools.
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….“The 2007 flood cost homeowners, businesses, emergency services and others some £3.2bn. The high costs of flooding underline the importance for continued investment in reducing flood risk, particularly as climate change means that we are likely to see more severe and frequent flooding in future.”….

2007 flooding in Ferens at the University of Hull, shot by Lexaris, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.