Winter Floods

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

My Lords, I have got the message and will take it back to the Department for Transport.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, after the water subsides, I suspect that the next headache will be an insurance nightmare. One has not heard in the considerations of the lessons learnt whether the Government will try to understand the insurance implications for farmers, householders and businesses. One would imagine that, as a result of the now frequent flooding, many of those properties and businesses will be absolutely uninsurable—or insurable only at a cost that is entirely prohibitive. I hope that, once the catastrophe has been managed, the insurance implications going forward will be considered.

[Lord De Mauley]

My noble friend is ever topical, because we will debate the issue of flood insurance, specifically in the context of the Water Bill, on Tuesday. He will know that we have been working very hard for many months with the Association of British Insurers on this very issue.