Attempts to reduce the risk of flooding for vulnerable homeowners are being hampered by lack of a co-ordinated strategy, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned.
With no effective plan, much-needed improvements to flood defences were hampered by "complex bureaucracy" and under-funding, said ABI property and household manager Jane Milne.
She told a meeting of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors that, while the ABI supports the Environment Agency's flood warning scheme, "we want to see greater use of flood prevention or reduction products, and to encourage property owners to press their local authorities and MPs for better flood defences".
Milne added: "However, key decisions on flood defences and flood management rest with government."
Her comments come on the heels of a warning by a scientist that lives could be at risk in London because the city's ageing sewer systems cannot cope with freak rainstorms.
Professor Edward Penning-Rowsell of the Flood Hazard Research Centre said thunderstorms could overwhelm the capital's drains and destroy hundreds of homes.
