Insurers to discuss flood claims with ministers
Insurance industry representatives will today meet with ministers to determine how best to deal with the high volume of claims resulting from the recent widespread flooding in England and Wales.The talks come after the Association of British Insurers (ABI) warned that the estimated cost of addressing damage caused by the floods has increased to around £1.5 billion. It is now thought that some 27,500 homes and 7,000 businesses were affected by the bad weather, which saw torrential rain pound several parts of the country.Nick Starling of the ABI told the BBC that the meeting would give insurers the opportunity to explain to ministers how the industry was handling the large number of claims subsequently made by policyholders."One of the things we want to do is update them on what the insurance industry has been doing to address these devastating floods," he explained."The problem with flooding is that the damage is very severe, it takes a long time to deal with, it takes a long time for properties to dry out before you can actually start remedying and rebuilding," Mr Starling added.Today's meeting comes after communities secretary Hazel Blears told the House of Commons that pressure was being exerted on insurers to make sure that those affected by the floods were helped as quickly as possible.The government itself has already pledged to increase flood defence spending by £200 million a year from 2010/11, while prime minister Gordon Brown announced a £14 million package of immediate support to help local authorities cope with cleanup operations following the bad weather.However some insurers have warned that they need to be provided with better information about the country's flood defences if they are to continue offering cover in the future."What we have is a map of the country with no accurate flood defence data on there," Simon Warsop, head of flood mapping at insurer Norwich Union, told the Reuters news agency."We are desperate for the Environment Agency to share that flood defence data with us," he added.
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