Insurers to attend summit meeting at Downing Street over floods crisis

AXA, Aviva and RSA are among the the insurers set to meet with the Government at Number 10 tomorrow to answer questions over their response to the floods.

Insurance Times understands that part of the roundtable discussion is likely to look at the current Flood Re exclusions for properties in Band H and those built after January 2009.

Insurers have come under fire recently from politicians over their response to the December and January storms and their involvement in the proposed Flood Re scheme.

Last week opposition leader Ed Miliband urged the government to put pressure on the insurance industry to pay claims quickly.

A statement from the ABI said: “Insurers have been working flat out since before Christmas to help customers in distress from both flooding and storms and will continue to do so.

“These commitments enshrine our promise to customers on what they can continue to expect from us, now and in the months ahead.”

Flood Re

During a Newsnight programme last week Defence secretary Philip Hammond also blamed insurers for the exclusion of small businesses from the Flood Re scheme.

Flood Re is a government-backed flood insurance pooling scheme for high-risk properties that is set to come into force in summer 2015.

It will replace the Statement of Principles, under which the insurance industry provides affordable flood cover to high-risk homes in return for government flood defence spending.

However, Flood Re will exclude leasehold properties, the private rented sector, SMEs, housing association homes, houses built after January 2009, council homes and properties in council tax band H.

The ABI has declined to comment on the meeting tomorrow.