However, Autumn usually marks the beginning of the flooding season and CETA, the UK’s largest general insurance network, has welcomed reports that the Environment Agency (EA) will now use the same flood map of Great Britain as the one being developed by Norwich Union.
Earlier in the year, flood maps produced by the EA ,which were meant to identify properties most at risk from flooding and which would have been used by underwriters to price risks for buildings and contents cover, were criticised by insurers as being too basic and lacking in detail.
Norwich Union has spent £3 million on a project to radar map the entire country in three dimensions. It is anticipated that information on half the country, which has already been mapped, will be used in pricing decisions from September onwards, while it is expected that mapping of the rest of the country will be completed by the middle of next year.
It had been estimated that up to 1.3 million properties are located in high risk river flood areas but one of the outcomes of the mapping exercise is that many houses considered to be bad flood risks were not as endangered as previously thought.
Commenting on the Environment Agency’s decision, David Quick, CETA’s Managing Director said “Using two different flood maps would have caused a great deal of confusion which would have resulted in many property homeowners paying more for their household cover than they needed to.
“The EA’s decision makes a lot of sense as it will allow all insurers to assess the risks from flooding more accurately and price their policies accordingly. This has got to be good news for the majority of homeowners whose properties are unlikely to be affected by river flooding as it should enable brokers to find them competitively priced quotes when their household insurance policies come up for renewal.”
