Money Box Live: Flooding and Insurance

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Flooding damages property, lives and can be incredibly financially damaging as well.

There was £352 million pounds in insurance claims for damaged homes following storms Babet, Ciaran and Debi at the end of last year according to the Association of British Insurers. We don't yet know the financial fall out of January's storm Henk - the eighth named storm of the season - but as the climate changes, insurers expect even more of this kind of weather.

So what is flooding costing homeowners and businesses and what is the best advice if you've been affected?

Felicity Hannah visits a flat owner in Worcestershire and we hear from the man who spent £80,000 taking matters into his own hands.

This week we're joined by Heather Shepherd from the charity the National Flood Forum as well as Laura Hughes, Manager of General Insurance at the Association of British Insurers, which represents the industry.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Sarah Rogers Editor: Sara Wadeson

(This episode was first broadcast on Wednesday the 17th of January on Radio 4 at 3pm)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.2	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.
0:22.4	So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,
0:28.3	and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.
0:33.6	So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:39.5	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:43.0	Hello, in this Moneybox Live podcast, we're talking about flooding and insurance.
0:48.2	Because there are almost six million homes at risk of flooding just in England alone,
0:53.3	all anxiously watching the weather forecasts
0:55.9	in the hopes the next storm will spare them. But some are still cleaning up. It's just a couple of
1:01.7	weeks after the eighth named storm of the season hit the country. Storm Hanks sweeps in across the
1:08.5	south of the UK, bringing wind gusts of more than 80 miles an hour flooding and yet more travel. Storm Hanks sweeps in across the south of the UK bringing wind gusts of more than 80 miles an hour flooding and yet more travel problems.
1:13.6	Storm Heng batters parts of England and Wales leaving flooding, power outages and transport disruption in its wake.
1:20.6	Have we ever had as much rain as we've had this last few weeks? It's unbelievable.
1:24.6	More than 260 flood warnings remain in place for England after the impact of storm Hank.
1:29.7	You just go into panic mode. We were trying to save everything we could.
1:33.6	It's psychologically destroyed. It's just, you know, it's like, I don't want to be here no more, but you think, well, what can we do, you know?
1:41.1	While flooding damages property, damages lives and can be incredibly financially damaging as well
1:47.1	and as the climate changes insurers expect even more of this kind of weather yet despite that
1:53.2	new homes are being built on floodplains in england without defences to protect them that's
	...

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