Drainage blamed for Hull floods

Flood damage to homes and businesses in Hull has been blamed on poor drainage.

An independent report published today found "a series of serious issues" with the drainage system operated by Yorkshire Water.

It suggests that the damage caused by the flooding this summer could have been reduced had the drains been working properly.

This supports the view held by RBS Insurance, which owns Direct Line and Churchill among other insurance providers.

Roger Ramsden, managing director of life and home at RBS Insurance, said it was time for a single authority to be given responsibility for drainage.

"The main conclusion of the independent review into this summer's floods in Hull has reaffirmed what we have previously highlighted as a problem - that there are serious issues with inadequate and ill-maintained urban drainage systems," he commented.

"As we have recommended to the government's 'Lessons Learned' review, the maintenance of all drainage systems within a given area must be put under the authority of a single body in order to prevent this from happening again in the future."

Insurers were hit with £3 billion of claims after this summer witnessed some of the worst flooding in living memory.

The industry has warned that home insurance policies might no longer include flood cover as standard if the government fails to take action to reduce the risk of similar incidents in the future.

27/11/2007 16:44:28