Drowned world

Widespread flooding in August 2000 cost the insurance industry more than £1bn. This time round the figure is estimated at £1.5bn and rising with more flood warnings in force.

If your property is affected or you are one of the estimated 7,000 businesses, mostly in the Midlands and northern England, swamped with putrid rain, river and drain water, you’ll want to know the issue is a government priority.
Climate change is here to stay and no matter how much carbon offsetting PR nonsense is bandied about, not enough is being done to protect property and, indeed, our planet.

This is a worldwide problem and as long as the likes of China, India and the US continue to spew out fossil fuels, weather patterns will become even more extreme in the decades to come. Everything comes down to money in our materialistic world but when flood defences are built, they need to accommodate the worst-case scenario otherwise tight-fisted budgets are a false economy.

As our climate changes, areas that are not deemed flood risks today will become the Hulls, Sheffields and Carlisles of tomorrow. This is not just a problem for the 10 percent of English land deemed to lie within areas of flood risk today. We are all vulnerable in the long term.

The Office of Science and Technology (OST) says the risk from flooding is likely to increase in future because of climate change. Government has, up until now, been too reactive. Lack of pro-activity is a disease of our society. Wait for the horse to bolt – then fix the stable door. Gordon Brown’s promise of £14m aid to get people back on their feet as soon as possible is perhaps too little too late. Not everything can be fixed as thousands of businesses will testify as they mop up after the latest deluge and try to stay afloat.

Innovation is called for in areas of flood risk. If we are going to continue to roll out new developments in today’s flood-risk areas and those of tomorrow we have to make sure design is sufficiently imaginative to negate the need for pumps and buckets.

Anchored buildings with a capacity to float– and I don’t mean boats, but you get my drift – properties on stilts, like they have in Japan, materials less prone to water damage…we have to make all new buildings and existing ones safer in the future.

More frequent and more widespread floods will send a tidal wave through the economy. Our new environment secretary Hillary Benn has promised to increase flood defence spending by £200m to £800m in 2010/2011. But this is money that must be front-loaded so something is done now about the 57 percent of flood defences that the National Audit Office has deemed unfit.

Defences are going to have to be upgraded if the insurance industry is going to continue to carry the can every time the skies open. Donaldsons has found that many companies could find they are significantly underinsured against the consequences of business interruption and may be left spending two to three times more on rent than under normal circumstances.

This is because as they seek temporary alterative premises they might only be able to secure them if they agree to sign up to leases that are for longer periods than actually required. Yet still we are continuing to build on flood plains, the nature of which will be a moving feast as our climate continues to change. Unless Brown gets this right, it will not just be businesses that are drowned.