The head of Britain’s biggest insurance firm has warned developers and local authorities about the land earmarked for new properties.
Currently, around 6.3 million homes and businesses across England are at risk of flooding. However, Amanda Blanc, CEO of Aviva, has told the BBC’s Big Boss Interview that one-in-nine properties built between 2022 and 2024 are in medium-to-high risk flood zones, and the country is ‘for sure’ approving the construction of houses in the wrong places, with many likely to be uninsurable in the near future.
The situation is bound to worsen, too, as more areas become vulnerable to extreme weather conditions in the coming decades. Aviva’s analysis suggests one third of homes completed in 2024 will be threatened by flooding as early as 2050. One-in-seven would be considered medium-to-high risk by that time.
‘It’s very well known where these flooding areas are. Let’s think very carefully about homes that are being built,’ said Blanc. ‘If you think there’s an inevitability of something happening, that’s not what insurance is. Right? Insurance is a pool where there’s a risk that something happens to some people and not for others. When there is an inevitability I think it makes it very difficult for [anything] to be insured.’
In winter 2024, a new flood defence app was launched in the UK which could help regulate mitigation, insurance and recovery work following major incidents. You can find out more about Resilico here. This spring, an assessment of transport infrastructure vulnerability in England found that 20% of the rail network and 12% of all roads were at risk of rising sea and river levels, with North Yorkshire the region under most strain.
Image: Cristina Gottardi / Unsplash
More on flooding:
UK flash flooding season is here, new mitigation efforts are needed
1.2m English homes at risk of flooding identified and mapped