Government pushes on flood claims
Representatives from the insurance industry are meeting ministers to see how best to deal with the cost of claims following the recent floods.
Ministers have already met local councils to discuss how to spend the £14m relief package announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
UK insurers are facing a bill of about £1.5bn after June's floods.
The flooding is estimated to have hit 31,200 homes and 7,000 firms, mainly in the Midlands and northern England.
Nick Starling of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said the meeting with ministers would be to explain how insurers have been handling the large number of claims the industry had received.
He said: "One of the things we want to do is update them on what the insurance industry has been doing to address these devastating floods.
"The problem with flooding is that the damage is very severe, it takes a long time to deal with, it takes a long time for properties to dry out before you can actually start remedying and rebuilding."
The Communities Secretary Hazel Blears told the House of Commons that pressure was being applied to insurers.
She said: "I hope the House will appreciate how seriously we're taking this issue around insurance to make sure that claims are dealt with speedily, fairly, and [that] there is sufficient capacity to really get on with this, because this is a top priority for members of the public."
Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has said the government is to increase flood defence spending from £600m this year to £800m a year in 2010/11.
Nevertheless, insurers have been critical about the level of government spending on flood defences.
Last year there was a £15m shortfall in the amount of money spent on flood defences.
Under a deal struck between the government and the insurance industry in 2005, insurers agreed to continue to offer cover for homes at risk of flood.
But if the government fails to fulfil its side of the bargain, people at risk of flooding could be refused cover by insurers.
Insurers have also called for more information on the country's flood defences, in order to help them offer cover.
Insurance threat
Some firms, it seems, are already re-assessing who they should insure following the recent floods.
German insurer Allianz said the recent floods were a "wake-up call" for the industry.
"Flood in the UK, we believe, is right up there as a major world-class risk," Clement Booth, chairman of Allianz UK, told the Financial Times newspaper.
He added it was too early to say how much insurance premiums would increase by.
Source: bbc.co.uk
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