Flood Re – the organisation which enabled owners of houses situated in flood risk areas – wants to further reduce insurance premiums by encouraging a practice to ‘build back better’ homes after a flood event.
Since Flood Re launched three years ago, premiums have dropped by at least 50% for four out of five homes who had previously been affected by flooding. About 250,000 owners of high- risk properties have been able to purchase cover that they would previously have been unable to afford or even obtain.
Flood Re now wants insurance companies to be allowed to do more to encourage investment in protection measures. From April 2021, it would like to see the Flood Re scheme be further developed and adapted, so that insurers can pay out extra sums on claims to meet the cost of adding flood resistant repairs and adaptations after a flood event. Currently, policies simply pay for putting a property back to its pre-flooding condition; however, flood resistant repairs can help to reduce the risk of any future flood damage. It also wants homeowners to be rewarded with discounts on premiums if they have installed anti-flood measures, such as flood doors, airbrick covers, non return valves as well as raising the height of electric sockets and adding water resistant materials to fixtures and fittings.
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