Association of British Insurers £1.1 billion a year of flood damage is being prevented by the UK’s current network of river barriers and defences, according to landmark research being published today.  It’s the first time the financial contribution of river water defences has been quantified in this way. The results are being unveiled today (Wed 12^th June) at the Association of British Insurers’ conference “Building a resilient future for the UK’s property insurance market”.

The modelling, based on thousands of simulations of weather events with and without flood defences, was commissioned by Flood Re and conducted by Risk Management Solutions (RMS). It emphasises the value to UK homes and businesses of flood defence spending and the importance of on-going investment by governments, particularly for flood-prone locations such as Cumbria, Yorkshire, Somerset and the Welsh Valleys.

It shows that inland flooding would, on average, cost almost 3 times more on an annual basis without the defences – a bill of £1.8 billion rather than £0.7 billion across the whole of the UK. In England, the Government currently spends around £0.6 billion each year on building and maintaining flood defences, with the Environment Agency recently recommending an annual spend of £1 billion on all flood risk management.

Despite the lack of severe flooding in recent years, speculation that this June could be the wettest on record is also a timely reminder that any long-term government spending allocations need to reflect the importance of on-going funding for flood management.  Other findings include:

• Residential properties benefit from 42% of the average annual savings, the highest proportion of all assets analysed.
• The more deprived 50% of the residential population benefits from 70% of the reductions in flood losses due to defences.
• Relative to the total damage floods could cause without defences, the benefits of defences are largest for more frequent, less severe flooding such as might be expected to happen once every five years. The financial impact of these less severe floods is reduced by 68% on average.

Closer examination of what happened in Cumbria in December 2015 shows the flooding caused by Storm Desmond would have done damage worth three-and-a-half times as much without river water defences – £2.8 billion rather than £0.6 billion.

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