Cost of UK floods to top 5 billion pounds

Flooding seen in the North of England and other parts of the UK in recent weeks could cost local businesses and residents more than 5 billion pounds to repair, which is set to increase as businesses continue to sustain damage from rising waters.

The North of England, especially Lancashire and Cumbria, as well as York and Hull have been among the worst effected areas hit by the recent Storm Desmond and Eva and will be targets for the upcoming Storm Frank. According to accountancy firm KPMG, the cost to the UK insurance industry alone could reach 1.5 billion pounds.

“The scale of the flooding over the last few weeks has seen communities across large sections of Northern England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland severely impacted,” said Justin Balcombe, KPMG’s UK head of general insurance management consulting. “In 2007 when a similar pattern of flooding hit, total insured claims were 3.2 billion pounds, however, we consider that the actual financial impact far exceeded this. We are assessing this month’s events through a number of economic lenses, resulting in an initial total cost estimate of 5 to 5.8 billion pounds.”

The flooding has had an impacted on numerous town centres, with York being one of the hardest hit, forcing them to close when shoppers should be hitting the high street to do their sale shopping.