Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
We are not convinced that the Department has yet done enough to address the difficulties...
Conclusion
We are not convinced that the Department has yet done enough to address the difficulties those recently flooded have in getting affordable insurance. Some people who have recently been flooded still face difficulties in obtaining affordable insurance. The Department states that the existence of Flood Re should ensure that affordable insurance is available even for those households at high levels of flood risk. However, the Department’s own research, following the floods in Doncaster in November 2019, suggests that some people were still unable to obtain affordable insurance. There also remain obstacles, and a lack of incentives, for households to take up property-level flood resilience measures such as installing flood barriers and doors. Such measures can reduce the damage and recovery time after a flood and could help people to get affordable insurance. There is scope to make flood resilience grants more effective, reform building regulations and introduce Flood Performance Certificates. Recommendation: The Department should write to us by April 2021 setting out the findings of its research into non-take up of insurance and how it is going to ensure remaining obstacles to obtaining affordable insurance are addressed. It should include what it is doing to overcome the obstacles to households implementing property-level flood resilience measures.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 7.2 The department wrote to the Committee on 7 April 2021 in response to this recommendation. 7.3 The Independent Review of Flood Insurance in Doncaster, published on 5 November 2020, made 12 proposals that government is considering. One of the proposals suggests the department repeats the 2018 research into the affordability and availability of flood insurance for households and small and medium sized enterprises. This research is due to commence in Spring 2021 and run until Autumn 2022. The research, the department’s fourth since 2013, will identify trends in relation to the availability and affordability of flood insurance and explore the number of policies with flood exclusions. 7.4 On 1 February 2021, government published a consultation on proposed changes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Flood Re scheme and to accelerate uptake of Property Flood Resilience (PFR). The government also published a Call for Evidence (CfE) on 1 February 2021 seeking evidence on key PFR enablers to inform policy development and action required to drive PFR uptake. The government will be publishing its response to these in due course. 7.5 The government further supports the installation and development of an effective PFR market through the £5.2 billion capital investment programme, the PFR recovery grant scheme, three regional Property Flood Resilience Pathfinders and through the PFR Roundtable. 7.6 At the 2020 Budget, the government announced a new £200 million ‘place-based resilience programme’ to run to 2027 which will help over 25 local areas to take forward wider innovative actions that improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion, including PFR.