The average insurance quote for both home buildings and contents cover has risen following a washout summer, according to AA British Insurance Premium Index.
The Shoparound summary, an average of the five cheapest quotes for each property in a country-wide basket of risks, shows that the cost of building cover rose 2.4 per cent to £181 over the three months to the end of September, while contents cover rose 1 per cent to £242.
The Environment Agency predicts that heavy rainfall will become three or four times more common over coming decades, increasing flooding tenfold.
Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, says that the wet summer has cost insurers in excess of £400 million.
“I am very concerned that no agreement has yet been reached in finding an affordable option to the ‘statement of principles’ between the insurance industry and the government, which ensure that families in flood-prone properties can continue to obtain flood cover”, said Douglas.
“To put this into context, insurers measure flood risk in terms of events likely to happen over a period of years.
“Even if a home is at risk of flooding once in a century, given that the average cost of repairing a flood-damaged property is £20,000 that is the equivalent of £200 per year, on top of the cost of covering other risks.”
Douglas points out that flooding is extremely costly in terms of damage to infrastructure and disruption to the economy, as well as to families’ homes; yet investment in flood defences has also fallen by more than 20 per cent.
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