Many home owners have seen their building and contents premiums rocket or have been denied cover altogether, The UK’s increasingly stormy weather cost insurers more than £1.4 billion for the last winter alone. One in six homes in England, around five million in total, may now be at risk of flood, according to the Environmental Agency. The damage isn’t just restricted to older properties – well constructed new build housing can also become a casualty.

Many home owners have seen their building and contents premiums rocket or have been denied cover altogether, The UK’s increasingly stormy weather cost insurers more than £1.4 billion for the last winter alone. One in six homes in England, around five million in total, may now be at risk of flood, according to the Environmental Agency. The damage isn’t just restricted to older properties – well constructed new build housing can also become a casualty.

MoneySupermarket.com figures show the average flood damage claim during the winter was for £22,339 per home, rising to £36,483 for those in Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire who were affected by the floods in December. Households that have claimed for flood damage typically see their premiums rise by more than 200 per cent, adding £372 a year to the cost of cover, while some face excesses on future claims of up to £20,000.

A new Government-backed scheme called Flood Re, which launched recently, should ensure those most at risk can again shop around for affordable cover. Around 350,000 of the worst-hit homes could see their premiums drop by more than a third, with excesses also falling to more reasonable levels under the scheme, the scheme is a world-first, organised by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Flood Re is not a home insurer itself and does not set insurance premiums. Instead, the scheme is making a pool of money available to insurers to cover the extra cost of covering afflicted properties. A string of insurers has already signed up to the scheme, including Admiral, Aviva, Churchill, Direct Line, Halifax, Legal & General, HSBC, LV, Lloyds, More Than, Nationwide, NatWest, Sainsbury’s Bank and RBS.

And at SWS we want to our bit too. All our approved to ‘BS8102 standard’ installations come with fully backed insurance against both product and installation failure. So whether you own or are responsible for new or existing housing construction and remedial work; you can depend on our waterproofing expertise to ensure that any above or below ground structure that needs to stay waterproof is guaranteed to do so. And that guarantee extends to all type of structures whether commercial or domestic – not just new or existing homes.

Take a look at the video from a government minister

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