Last updated at 11:00, Saturday, 23 January 2010
 

Floods which battered parts of Cumbria last year will cost insurance companies more than £200m, new figures show.

The Association of British Insurers said the cost to insurers of November’s floods was estimated to be £206m, around 60 per cent of which was due to damage to businesses.

The group said insurers had handled around 36,000 flood and storm damage claims from customers, and made interim payments ranging from £250 to £400,000 to homeowners and firms.

They have also arranged temporary accommodation for 470 policyholders whose homes or business premises had become uninhabitable.

John Rockliffe is from Mitchell’s Auction Mart, where several traders from Cockermouth’s high street have set up shop since the devastating floods.

He said some businesses have been forced to mothball parts of their operations because they were not receiving any custom from people visiting the town centre - and as a result some businesses were closing without the fallback option of insurance cash.

“It’s not just businesses in the centre of town, it has a knock-on effect further afield as well,” Mr Rockliffe said. “That sort of cost of the floods won’t be included in the figure of £206m, as they won’t have insurance covering them for loss of custom.

“In a sense it’s like foot and mouth, in that the farmers that got it received compensation, whereas others had the additional cost of foot and mouth but no compensation.”

He added that the insurance figures did not cover the psychological damage suffered by traders, some of whom are now reluctant to reopen on Main Street after November’s traumatic events, when a record 314mm of rain fell in 24 hours to cause widespread flooding.

While high, the cost to insurers remains far less than the £3bn paid out following floods in Yorkshire, the Midlands and the West Country in 2007, while Carlisle’s floods in 2005 caused around £250m of damage.

Nick Starling, the ABI’s director of general insurance and health, said: “Insurers are playing a critical role in getting Cumbria back on its feet following the devastating flooding.

“It can take months for badly flood-damaged properties to fully dry out, which is why insurers are paying for temporary accommodation or alternative business premises for those most badly affected.

“This was a traumatic and tragic event for those affected, but not for insurers, who expect to deal with extreme weather incidents like this during the year.”

First published at 09:01, Saturday, 23 January 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk