Flooding is cited as the biggest climate change risk to the UK

How can the Government reconcile flood defence budget cuts with a warning that flooding poses the highest climate change risk for the UK, asks Ruth Lunn

The issue of flooding has once again come to the fore, with the publication of Defra’s climate change study. It warns that flooding is the UK’s biggest risk, yet at the same time, flood defence spending is being cut, with thousands of planned schemes cancelled. And insurers are also threatening to pull the plug, leaving many businesses and households vulnerable to flood risk.

Defra’s report, the Climate Change Risk Assessment, highlights the top 100 climate challenges the UK will face, and also warns of the dire economic implications arising. Flooding in July 2007, for example, racked up costs of £3 billion in just a few days.

In addition to the increased flooding risks at home, international supply chains are also threatened by extreme weather events.

Budget cuts

However, central funding for flood defence is reducing. Capital flood defence spending was £354 million in 2010/2011; the current year is projected to be £259 million. Defra’s new funding regime expects local authorities and businesses to contribute towards the difference. So whilst the Government claims more households and businesses will be protected, because the same amount of money will go further, it is relying on local communities and businesses to either top up schemes or fund them entirely. No wonder then, given the financial pressures on councils, businesses and householders, that the Public Accounts Committee has warned of a major shortfall.

Insurance

Concern is also growing that businesses and householders may reach a point where they can no longer get insurance to cover the risk of flooding. Adrian Webb from esure warns that the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between insurers and the government, in place since 1961, looks to be coming to an end.

“The government of the time said government would be responsible for flood defences, and in turn the insurance industry would include flood cover as standard. At the end of the 1990s it was becoming clear that the government’s side of the equation was not being met – and will not be met in future,” he said.

The current agreement with the Government, drawn up in 2000, ends in June 2013. It states that insurers must include flood cover as standard for properties built before 1 January 2009, where flood risk is low, and that insurers must allow at-risk householders who already have flood cover to automatically renew with them – provided flood defences are planned to be in place within five years.

So then, flood protection – a national priority or something we can no longer afford? The message seems to be: make sure you are undertaking your own climate resilience planning, rather than relying on the Government to take all the necessary action.