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Flood and Water Management Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, has raised the important issue—and painted the picture well—of insurance premiums for householders living in flood risk areas. As the noble Lord said, it is a matter of great concern to many householders who face paying what are effectively flood level premiums even though they have never before been flooded. That means that many people cannot or will not pay home insurance and, therefore, could be left terribly exposed if the worst came to the worst. I believe that around one-quarter of the homes flooded in the floods of 2007 were not covered by insurance. This is a matter of great and ongoing concern. My honourable friend Nick Herbert was right when he said in another place that we are sympathetic to concerns and that our party is prepared to work with the Government and the Liberal Democrats to see if we can find some workable proposals that will both protect householders and have the support of the insurance industry. I am slightly wary about supporting this particular amendment because it would oblige the Minister to interfere in the insurance market without setting clear parameters for doing so, beyond sharing risk equitably. I accept that the noble Lord cannot push his amendment at this stage and has tabled it to enable debate. I welcome that. I would like to hear from the Minister what the Government are doing to address this problem, where premiums are unaffordable but the consequences of being uninsured are even more so. What work have they done with the insurance industry, in particular, the co-operation of which will be very important? There is a great deal of work to be done. The noble Lord has asked some interesting questions and we would support any efforts to speed up matters.