Government's flood risk proposals condemned by RICS

Friday 13th July 2012

Surveyors have attacked the Government proposals on flooding insurance as vague and unfair, and has again warned that without a workable solution, within a year some properties could become blighted and unmortgageable.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman is in talks with the insurance industry to charge a 10% levy on all home insurance premiums, with home owners in non flood-risk areas subsidising those in danger. Spelman said that the levy would help home owners affected by flood risk to continue to afford insurance.

This levy could be in place within months.

But the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has slammed the idea.

But Alan Cripps, RICS associate director, said: “We welcome steps to ensure that home owners living in flood risk areas will be able to secure insurance.

“Without this, by June next year, home owners and businesses may find their properties are not only unmortgagable and unprotected from thousands of pounds of flood damage –but may also see their property severely drop in value.

“However, this latest announcement is both vague and unfair. Not only does this penalise home owners in low flood-risk areas, but it is forcing home owners and families who are already under financial pressure to pay extra to their insurance companies. And there is no indication of how this extra money will be used or managed.

“Once again, the Government is passing the buck and is leaving others to pick up the pieces.”

Heavy rain made last month the wettest June on record and flooding has continued into this month, with a new raft of flood warnings and alerts in place.

This week, a report by the Government’s climate change advisory panel found the risk of flooding for many homes in England could increase fourfold by 2035 if more action to deal with the impact of climate change is not taken.

The report found that 210,000 properties have been built on flood plains since 2002, with one in five of these new homes built in high-risk areas.