As businesses, communities and the insurance sector count the cost of the latest storm to hit the UK, there are calls to better integrate insurance and resilience to create a system that is fit for purpose.

Many of those affected by Storms Babet and Ciarán have faced the devastation without insurance cover, either because it was too expensive or difficult to obtain. Others have suffered damage which could potentially have been mitigated or avoided.

Dr Eugenia Cacciatori, senior lecturer in management at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), warned that insurance schemes need to be more widely accessible and better integrated with resilience schemes if they are to meet future needs. She said: “Insurance can be a very important part of building resilience to the increase in weather-related disasters we are beginning to witness, because it provides money to rebuild and help in rebuilding better.”

She added that floods can create poverty cycles that are very hard to escape: “Escalating losses will make it harder for communities to insure their properties and assets. But subsidising insurance to simply rebuild as before is only an expensive short-term fix and will rapidly become unsustainable. Insurance against disasters only has a future if it integrated with other measures that reduce vulnerability.”

Cacciatori pointed out that Flood Re has begun to work in this direction by helping to finance ‘build back better’ initiatives aimed at reducing damage for subsequent floods, such as raising electrical sockets or using water-resistant flooring, but suggests that more needs to be done at a planning and building standards level, harnessing the wealth of knowledge of risk that the insurance sector has.

She said: “Integrating insurance in the wider resilience landscape is not easy and many countries are struggling with this problem. Some countries offer useful models however. Switzerland, for example, has insurers included in any conversation about construction and resilience, and this mindset must be adopted in the UK to alleviate the worst affects of flooding.”


Image courtesy Previsico

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