CML news & views

Insurers have called for a long-term commitment to maintaining and improving flood defences so that cover remains widely available to the owners of two million homes and businesses known to be at risk of flooding.

Lenders support improved flood defences because being able to get insurance against flooding is normally crucial in obtaining a mortgage.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) described the recent Flood and Water Management Bill as a “vital first step” towards implementing the recommendations of the Pitt Review to make properties in England and Wales safer from flooding. It said it wanted a political consensus to deliver reform, and urged all parties to work together. The ABI also called for a long-term strategy to:

• create strong national leadership on flood management, with targets and a statutory duty for the Environment Agency to reduce risk;
• establish new powers and responsibilities to tackle surface flooding, with a bigger role for local authorities, which would be required to produce water management plans;
• promote community action to reduce flood risk, with the Environment Agency and local authorities working on flood resistant and resilient measures to help property owners where it is not practical to defend from flooding; and
• modernising the approach to managing flood risk, for example by developing a more risk-based approach to regulating reservoirs.

The ABI also said it wants to see publication of a long-term funding strategy for flood management.