Defra points to flood management as an area for cuts, despite coalition pledge to maintain spending

Insurers have urged the government not to cut back on flood protection measures.

Their call follows follows a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs statement identifying flood management as one of the areas in which it will aim to find £162m of savings this financial year – despite a coalition pledge to maintain this year’s increase in spending.

RSA boss Adrian Brown recently warned that insurers could pull back from insuring at-risk homes if the government cut back on flood defence spending.

And Towergate chairman Peter Cullum, speaking at the Biba conference in May, said insurers were “not a registered charity”. The government had to work with insurers if it wanted to build homes on flood plains.

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