Flood Re updates on progress in reducing the protection gap in the UK

A year after Flood Re went live, the number of insurance providers that signed up to the scheme increased to 60 from 16.

Flood Re, a government-backed scheme to promote the affordability and availability of flood insurance for homeowners across the UK, went live on April 4, 2016. As part of the scheme, insurers can place the flood risk element of domestic property insurance with Flood Re at a premium linked to property Council Tax bands. Flood Re sits in the background, with the purchase of the policy and the process of making a claim being unchanged.

By December 2016, the number of householders who had made prior flood claims and could get quotes from two or more insurers went up to 95 percent from 9 percent before the introduction of Flood Re, according to a Flood Re commissioned benchmarking exercise.

Similarly, the number of householders who had made prior flood claims and was able to get quotes from five or more insurers went up to 84 percent from 0 percent over the period.

Since the introduction of Flood Re, the data shows four out of five householders with previous flood claims saw a reduction in the price of  available quotes of more than 50 percent, according to Flood Re.

The insurers participating in the scheme represent 90 percent of the home insurance market in the UK.

“Flood Re has changed the insurance market so that tens of thousands of households that have been flooded can access more affordable insurance,” said Mark Hoban, chairman of Flood Re. “We are proud that this scheme has been able to help people whose lives have been devastated by flooding.”

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