Met Office says year so far is driest since 1964
Figures showing the lowest level of rainfall in nearly 50 years have sparked predictions of an upsurge in subsidence claims by Cunningham Lindsey.
Over the last three years subsidence claims have averaged 30,000 based on figures published by the ABI. But weather forecaster Positive Weather Solutions has said that this summer could be 27 % drier than average in the South East and East Anglia on the back of Met Office statistics recording UK rainfall in the first five months of 2010 at their lowest levels since 1964.
PWS predicts that the weather will be drier than in 2005 when the industry received a total of 37,100 claims, but current expectations are that it will be some way short of the 54,000 claims seen in the surge of 2003.
Giles Carter, Head of Subsidence Services at Cunningham Lindsey, says: “It is too early to say what the likely outcome will be as rainfall during the next few weeks will be crucial. The comparison we have made does not, of course, take into account other contributory factors such as temperature, the economic situation and global weather patterns.”
“As every year, we are already well advanced with our plans to deal with an increase in claims should that occur ensuring that we have sufficient resources to deal with peak claim volumes up to surge levels and the subsequent downstream claims handling.”
Cunningham Lindsey’s Subsidence Surge Briefing is available from its website at http://www.cunninghamlindsey.com/uk.
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