FOLLOWING the efforts of a local Hedon councillor who brought the threat to affordable Home Flood Insurance to the attention of the East Riding Council, a constituency-wide petition has been launched on the issue!
Councillor John Dennis secured the unanimous support of the East Riding Council this month, in a call for the Government to join in “meaningful discussions” with the insurance industry so that affordable premiums remained available to residents after a national agreement ends in July.
Now Graham Stuart MP has launched a petition entitled Safeguard Home Flood Insurance which reads:
The Petition of the residents of Beverley and Holderness.
The petitioners believe that flood insurance must remain available and affordable to householders. They therefore call upon Her Majesty’s Government to make every effort to reach an agreement with insurers before the expiration of the current ‘Statement of Principles’ in June 2013.
The petitioners therefore request that the Prime Minister urges the Government to negotiate with the Association of British Insurers to reach an agreement to succeed the ‘statement of principles’.
You can download a copy of the petition Flood-Insurance-Petition-BH1 and it is available below. Completed petitions need to be returned to Graham Stuart by Monday 25th February 2013.
I hadn’t realised that it was 3 years this month that, as a ‘rookie’ councillor I pushed a resolution through the Full Council at Beverley securing a unanimous vote for the East Riding to call for the Government to “join in meaningful discussions” with the insurance industry so that affordable premiums remained available to home-owners. etc etc.
There had been a provisional arrangement in place for several years but that was about to expire, and there seemed to be no urgency to replace it back then. In fact there appeared to have been considerable reticence on the part of the decision makers in Westminster, and the insurers, for many years previously to actually grasp that particular nettle. A solution was needed, and the East Riding led the way in calling for action.
Good news at last. By way of an update, the insurance industry and Government announced recently that a final agreement had been reached, securing the implementation of “Flood Re” – a pooled insurance system proposed by the UK insurance industry which will allow even the highest risk home-owners to obtain insurance against floods.
As I understand it (and by the way I’m not an insurance expert, so please do your own research) the scheme will cap the flood element of the insurance premium of home-owners in flood-prone areas. The considerable costs of ‘Floor Re’ will be paid for through a levy of around £10.50 on all household premiums across the country, a figure apparently unchanged from the amount levied under the previous arrangement.
A year on from devastating floods which caused trauma to hundreds of people here in the East Riding, and thousands more elsewhere, implementation of ‘Flood Re’ can move forward so as to provide peace of mind for hundreds of thousands of home-owners at risk of flooding.
There are still issues which are giving cause for concern in various quarters, and more work is required, The draft regulations for instance, currently stand to exclude the majority of leasehold properties, and those in the private rented sector, which will be a worry to landlords – and tenants of course.
However, for now, home-owners can sleep a little more soundly at night.. All we need to do now is to continue to work towards actually solving the problem nationally, and make our communities safe from floods forever.
John P. Dennis.
668th Mayor of Hedon
ERYC Ward Member for S.W.Holderness
Just by way of an update, I heard from our M.P. Graham Stuart today on the outcome of the petition he set up. He says
” I’ve had a reply from a Treasury Minister who said that the Statement of Principles will not be renewed by insurers. He told me that the Government is looking to find alternative ways to keep flood insurance available and premiums affordable – but that no agreement has yet been reached. I will seek to keep up the pressure on Ministers because residents in East Yorkshire could be among those worst affected if no deal is done ”
I hope that petition, following the unanimous vote in favour of my motion through ERYC full council meeting back in January,and the ongoing support from Graham Stuart will help persuade the ‘powers that be’ to come up with the solution to the problem that our residents deserve.
Thanks again to Graham for his involvement, and for setting off the petition, and a big thank you too, to everyone who signed it.
John Dennis
Cllr. E.R.Y.C.
Ward Member S.W.Holderness
There’s a hard copy of the petition in my office if anyone wants to pop in and sign it.
21 St. Augustines Gate, Hedon.