Flood Alert In The UK

According to a recent survey, about 6.5 million homes in the UK are at risk from flooding, and 1.5 million of these homes are in high risk areas. This survey should make your bones shiver because your house could be one of the 6.5 million homes! So far, the government has completed only flood defenses and protection for about 80,000 homes.

With this, if you can not get flood insurance for your home, you are in neck deep trouble. You should have already been aware, that if your house is located in a high risk area, flood insurance companies will not welcome you with wide arms and big smiles. The problem is expected to escalate if global warming continues because by 2030, the survey estimates that the 1.5 million homes at risk today could bloat to as high as 3.5 million homes. This is a staggering figure, an alarming prospect that people in the UK should be prepared for.

Due to the recent severe flooding in high risk areas in the UK, leading insurance providers have been mulling about removing flood insurance cover from their policies because they had been stung by the flood insurance claims amounting to millions of pounds. That is if the government will not make any move to increase its budget for putting up flood defenses.

It is the responsibility of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to develop and maintain these flood defenses in the UK. The immediate result of the severe floods is that people with homes located in high risk areas can only expect their flood insurance premiums soaring up.

This is not good news for people in the high risk areas because their premiums could even rise up to 400 percent especially in the areas most prone to flooding. Do not also be surprised if your existing flood insurance provider may decline to renew your flood insurance policy or even refuse to sell flood insurance cover mostly in areas where floods are prone to hit most.

Internet reports also show that if DEFRA does not get on top of this problem, the possibility that UKs current bill of 950 million pounds a year for flood damage could rise to as high as 3.2 billion pounds. The insurance claim for household flood damage in the UK is 30,000 pounds, a figure which is much higher than insurance claims for fire damage.

To help control this alarming occurrence, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) is pressuring the DEFRA to hasten installing and upgrading flood defenses in the UK, especially those areas considered to be high risk.
If you think your home or the home you are planning to move on to is one of the 6.5 million homes facing the risk of flooding, or is in a high risk area, you can find out by checking the maps and visiting DEFRAs website www.environment-agency.gov.uk. This is not something you can play deaf and blind to. Your whole future could be at stake so do not delay.