Baker calls for action on floods

LARGE swathes of Lewes could become uninsurable unless the Government provides millions of pounds for flood defences in the town, or obliges insurance companies to provide policies with flood cover that people can afford. That is what angry Lewes MP, Norman Baker, will be telling Floods Minister, Elliot Morley, face-to-face at a special meeting in London on Tuesday. Also present will be representatives of the local authorities and business community. The meeting is being held amid growing concern that Lewes people will have to pay further for the flood damage that has already caused such terrible heart-break and financial loss. More than 800 homes and businesses in the historic town were hit by the floods ... and the insurance bill, yet to be totted up, will certainly run into the tens of millions. Said Mr Baker: Local people are rightly becoming impatient at the lack of visible progress in identifying adequate flood defence measures for the town. It is deeply disappointing that, almost a year on, we have not seen even the roughest of draft proposals. The insurance situation for home owners will not become clear for at least another year as the Association of British Insurers has given the Government two years to improve flood defences before insurers threaten either to exclude high-risk areas from cover or increase premiums to a level where insurance is not worth taking out. Because of their nature, businesses are being treated individually. Some have had little trouble with their insurance. Others have found the issue almost insurmountable. One company that employs 50 men in Lewes says its insurers have turned it down completely for future flood insurance until the flood risk is substantially alleviated . The whole future of the company is at risk. Another says the proposed terms of its insurance renewal have made it impossible for it to continue in the town in the future as there is a large shortfall between any claim that could be made and the value of the contents and loss of earnings which might need to be claimed in the event of further flooding. One businessman who has closed down and wants to sell his building for private occupation has been told by his insurers that they will no longer insure it as it is not being operated commercially. A block of flats in Lewes which the occupants choose to share as a company for the purposes of grass cutting and minor repairs is being treated by insurers as a business. Before the block was flooded, it received full cover with a premium of 900 a year. Now the occupants have been offered insurance at 2,100 a year with no flood cover, or 5,000 a year with flood cover that carries a 25,000 excess. Said Mr Baker: One constituent has seen his insurance rocket from 192 a year, with a flood excess of 50, to 750 this year with an excess of 2,500. And all householders face a crisis in October 2002, when the insurance industry says it will no longer guarantee to provide existing customers with cover for their domestic properties. Whole areas of Lewes will become uninsurable overnight. The situation for businesses is even worse. They are feeling the chill wind of market forces without even the two-year protection offered to domestic households. I believe the consequences of the stance taken by the insurance industry towards local businesses is in danger of doing more damage to those businesses than the floods themselves did. There are a number who cannot get re-insured without a massive flood excess and tell me they will have to leave Lewes. Others have seen a multiple increase in their premiums. Properties are already sitting empty because prospective tenants cannot get contents insurance against floods. The Minister must wake up and grasp the nettle. We need a flood defence plan now and we need Government action to prevent insurance companies from pulling the rug from under homes and businesses in the town. The time for words is over. The time for action is NOW. Published: 13.7.01 Sussex Newspapers Ltd