12:30 - 03 September 2007
Flood-hit householders should consider redesigning their homes
to help reduce insurance premiums, it was claimed today.
Thousands of homes across Hull and the East Riding are facing internal refits
following June's floods.
As the Mail revealed last week, many homeowners in flood-hit areas are facing
large increases in their insurance premiums.
In
addition, some people attempting to secure home insurance for the first time are
not even being offered quotes as many major insurance companies have blacklisted
flood-hit properties.
The Mail has launched the Play Fair campaign, calling on insurers to continue
providing cover to homeowners at competitive rates.
Today the Association of British Insurers, which represents almost 400 insurance
companies, urged householders to make their homes more flood resilient.
A spokesman said: "Individual property owners can do much to increase the
resistance and resilience of their properties to flood damage, perhaps in
partnership with their mortgage provider, insurer or local authority.
"Making your home flood resilient is more affordable during the normal course of
renovation for your property or during repairs after a previous flood." Measures
being recommended by the ABI include;
Replacing timber floors with concrete.
Changing chipboard and MDF kitchen base units with plastic equivalents.
Replacing gypsum plaster with more water-resistant materials.
Repositioning electrical points and service meters.
Fitting one-way valves into drainage pipes.
The spokesman said: "In the long-term, adopting flood resilient measures could
make it easier for an insurer to continue to provide cover for a homeowner
living in a high flood-risk area."
Insurance company bosses were today meeting Government ministers at a regional
flood summit in Doncaster.
Organised by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, the meeting was due
to discuss the impact of the floods on businesses and the region's economy.
Simon Hill, Yorkshire Forward's executive director of business, said: "Moving on
from the initial clean-up phase of the recovery, it is essential the region
analyses what needs to be done next to enable businesses to grow and develop.
"Further work also needs to be undertaken to enable regional stakeholders to
better understand the sequence of events following the floods.
"This will ensure that lessons are learned and procedures are adopted that will
minimise the risk to people and businesses in any similar future incident."
Yorkshire Forward has already handed out £750,000 in relief grants to businesses
since the floods.
Following the summit, competitiveness minister Stephen Timms was due to make a
second visit to flood-hit firms in Hull.
a.young@mailnewsmedia.co.uk