Government called on to guarantee cover for excluded Flood Re groups

The government must make guarantees to find cover for those excluded from Flood Re, the Biba networks and MGA advisory board chairman Tim Ryan said.

Ryan, also executive Chairman at Una broker network, said there was still an opportunity for the government to find suitable and fair insurance cover for the excluded groups.

Those excluded from Flood Re include SMEs, charities and 5 million leasehold properties across the UK.

Biba has been lobbying for SMEs to get access to cover under Flood Re after the government decided to leave them out of the proposals.

But the trade body, which is now not pushing for SMEs to be included in Flood Re – to which the ABI is opposed – has said it is seeking appropriate solutions for each of the separate excluded classes.

“Small and micro-businesses are the life-blood of the UK economy,” Ryan said. “If just a small portion of these micro-businesses took on one employee each, unemployment figures would continue to drop.

“They need all the help they can get to grow and it’s now down to the government to guarantee some form of cover for these groups.”