A government agreement which affords flood cover to properties in high-risk areas is set to come to an end and a replacement agreement is now being put in place between the insurance companies and Government – via the Water Bill currently in the House of Lords.
The new agreement, called Flood Re, is a positive scheme for those people who are covered by it, guaranteeing availability and affordability of flood cover. However, it will no-longer guarantee availability of cover to council tax band H properties, many leased properties, homes built since 2009 or small businesses/charities with up to 49 staff – all of which are covered by the current agreement.
The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) has been asked by both Defra and 10 Downing Street to see if there is evidence of groups who may be excluded from Flood Re having difficulty in finding flood cover. BIBA wants people/organisations who may be affected by the changes to fill in a short survey so they can find out what the market is currently like, and also what might happen should no solution be found to accommodate these groups.
Take the survey here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/impactfloodre
The survey should take no longer than a couple of minutes to complete and closes on 17 April. It is anonymous, although there is an option to give BIABA your contact details which might help with specific examples.