While owners of 36 properties in one Worcestershire town get good news on funding to protect their homes from flooding, landlords looking to procure landlord insurance on properties at risk of flooding face an uncertain future.
The homeowners in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, will each receive grants of up to £7,000 to buy items such as door barriers and cellar protection to prevent flood water destroying their property. The funds will come from the Department of Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) but Malvern County Council now hope to get a further £200,000 from the Regional Defence Committee to protect another 115 properties that are also at risk.
They may well find that task more difficult. Although it was not one of the headline cuts that made the front pages, the Spending Review presented by Chancellor George Osborne included plans to cut up to 25% from the proposed budget to improve the nations flood defences.
Not only has this incensed councils who may be expected to somehow find the extra funding but insurers as well or furious at the cuts.
The Association of British Insurers came to an agreement with the government to carry on providing affordable insurance to houses that were most at risk of flooding until 2013. The government had asked for the insurers to provide cover up to that date because that was the length of time it was estimated would be needed to sort out Britain’s flood defence plan.
The cuts now suggest that flood defences in many areas will not be ready in time and insurers will increase the cost of policies to such a degree that the homes will become virtually uninsurable.