Some insurers will refuse to cover homes built in areas the Environment Agency has warned are prone to flooding, the Association of British Insurers claimed last week. “I can’t speak for the whole membership, but many of them are saying that they will refuse to insure them. Insurance will become much more difficult to get,” Stephen Haddrill, ABI director general said.
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nsurers want to continue to provide flood cover, but poor planning decisions will lead to more homes becoming “unsaleable, uninsurable and uninhabitable,” the ABI asserted.
The ABI also warns that a third of the 3m new homes the Government plans to be built before 2020 will likely be subject to serious flood risk.

“Putting more houses into the most exposed parts of the country doesn’t make any sense from our point of view,” he stressed, adding “we think that the standards of building in the flood plain need to be raised significantly, so that the houses are much more resilient against flooding if it happens.” Mr Haddrill revealed his association’s heightened concerns in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 14 February.
John Slaughter, director of external affairs for the Home Builders Federation, however, responded saying “ It’s not in our interests to build homes that are subject to undue flood risk or aren’t resilient if it does flood. So I’m rather puzzled by the concern that he’s expressing.”

He added: “We have to think of our members’ reputation long-term. If they’re building unsound products in unsound areas  – then that’s going to come back and haunt the industry pretty quickly.” But Mr Haddrill argued: “I don’t think we’re doing any more than stating what Barbara Young, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, said several times last year. I think her judgement on the matter is absolutely right. She is concerned that the Environment Agency advice is not being taken up and people and their homes will be put at risk accordingly.”

u http://www.abi.org.uk/