The ABI (Association of British Insurers) has warned that UK Government spending on flood defences needs to increase by 10 percent a year to £750 million by 2011 to deal with the growth in flood risk. Current flood spending levels were set in 2002, however recent research has shown that more businesses and homes are at risk from flooding than was thought to be the case when the spending was planned.

Stephen Sklaroff, the ABI’s deputy director general, said: “Britain is one of the few countries where flood insurance is widely available from the private market. Insurers want this to continue. But the new, higher estimates of homes and businesses at risk means that the Government needs to invest more in flood defences. This makes good economic sense for home owners, businesses, and the taxpayer.”

ABI says that the continued widespread availability of flood insurance depends on sustained Government investment to bring flood defences up to an adequate standard. The new Environment Agency estimates of the number of homes and businesses at high risk of flooding are double the 2002 estimates. Flood defence spending has been frozen at levels agreed in 2002, and is now falling in real terms.

The ABI has also published a short report ‘A Future For The Floodplains’. Highlights of this are:

* Flooding is set to worsen, unless action is taken now. Sea levels, which are already rising by 3mm a year, will rise more quickly in the future. South–East England could face a 90cm sea level rise by the second half of the century.

* Summers are likely to be drier. Intense rainstorms will be 20 percent more frequent.

* Flood defence projects yields benefits of around six times the money invested in them. For some projects, this return may be as much as sixteen times the investment. The Government estimates suggest that flood management reduces the cost of damage by about £3 billion a year on average.

Read the report

•Date: 20th July 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Emergency planning
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