Popular Science News | UK Flood Defences Failing

Popular Science News –  despite the £400m invested, UK Flood Defences are failing to protect homes in many areas of the country. It is argued that this investment cannot increase to prevent every imaginable flood and the amount currently spent is as good as it will get. Much of the blame has been placed on ill advised building projects on land liable to flood and the increased concreting of land which instead of soaking up the rain funnels it to low lying housing estates.

Perhaps the government, instead of just accepting that homes will be flooded, should look to alleviate the stress of those living in them. One measure which is not helping is rejecting insurance company plans to cover flood risk homes.  A ‘simple and elegant’ plan suggested by insurers is for the government to provide a temporary overdraft to the insurance companies with the borrowed sum to be repaid by the industry the following year.

200,000 households at risk of flooding are at risk of losing their home insurance policies next year unless the government helps the insurance industry support these households. If these households cease to be insurable next year and then become flooded one argument is that the affected homes could launch a court case against a local council if their planning decisions had contributed to the disaster. In that way the council tax payers of flooding areas could pick up the bill instead of insurance companies.

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