Flooding poses higher home insurance risk, ABI says

Climate change could cause house insurance premiums in the UK to rise dramatically due to an increased risk of flooding, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said.

Some home insurance companies have already warned that they may not insure new developments built on flood plains if planning advice from the Environment Agency was not heeded, the Guardian reports.

The agency believes as many as one in six homes in England and Wales could be in danger of being flooded.

"Flood risk is the main catastrophic risk in the UK and we know that climate change will bring increased flood risk to the UK," Nick Starling, Director of General Insurance and Health at ABI, told the newspaper.

"What our members are concerned about is the increase in areas of flood risk so that some areas may become impossible to insure."

It follows news in Peterborough Today that a two-year Environment Agency project to protect 11,700 homes in Wisbech from flooding is nearing completion.

Posted by Martin Ellis.