Floods Recovery Minister John Healey after meeting the Association of British Insurers regarding the floods in 2007, said

“It was a very useful meeting where the ABI said that out of a total of at least 130,000 claims, by the end of August one in five of household claims had been settled and 10 per cent of business claims. While awaiting updated figures they expect this now to have reached around 25 per cent of households and 15 per cent for businesses”.

The quote was taken from a government web site.

The Minister is also quoted as saying, “”Over the last few months there have been a number of reports in the media about areas being blacklisted for flood related insurance cover and insurance renewals refused. The ABI today confirmed to us that no areas have been blacklisted, existing cover has not been withdrawn in any area and there is no evidence that policy renewals are being refused. I hope this will give households and businesses reassurance in the face of such reports. The Government will continue to work with the industry to ensure this remains the case.”

I suspect this worry in the media is related to a passage on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)  website where it says:

“Flood cover will be available as a standard feature of household and small business policies for a) those properties defended to a minimum standard of 1 in 75 (in other words where the design standard of defences is such that the probability of the properties being flooded in any single year is 1.3% or less), or b) for those properties where such defences are scheduled for completion within the next five years. Premiums will continue to reflect different degrees of risk.”

Which to my way of thinking means that if you’re at risk of flooding 1 in every 60 years you’ll be refused cover.

In which case you most certainly need to have a proper recovery plan for your business or you’ll sink without trace!

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