Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to assist businesses in areas which are prone to flooding to obtain flood insurance.

We are currently not aware of any evidence suggesting that there is a systemic problem with the availability of commercial flood insurance and we have recently published a report that considers the availability of flood insurance for small businesses in areas of high flood risk. The report is available at:

http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=19227&FromSearch=Y&Status=3&Publisher=1&SearchText=FD2688&SortString=ProjectCode&SortOrder=Asc&Paging=10#Description

However, we recognise the difficult challenges that some small businesses could face in areas of high flood risk. We have therefore committed to work with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and other stakeholders to monitor the insurance market for small businesses. We are keen to work across Government, and with a range of business interests, to better understand the nature and extent of any problem that might exist.

The ABI have assured us that the insurance industry will continue to provide insurance to small businesses on a competitive basis.