A More Positive Role for the Insurance Industry?
The flood models produced by reinsurance brokers such as Benfield Group Ltd and other leading brokers like AON, Guy Carpenter, and Willis, or major reinsurers like Swiss Re, are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Surely this expertise and these sources of data would be of great value to the government and the EA/SEPA? For example, government could commission studies to set priorities for flood defence spending, or to select areas for "managed realignment", based on the potential flood losses from building damage and business interruption. In this way, the insurance industry could make a positive contribution to helping to solve the problem rather than being perceived as simply asking for more spending on flood defences all the time. Insurers could perhaps also press for the Swedish "social tolerance" approach in which flooding is expressed in terms of impact. Thus inner city areas with a high level of people at risk and a high level of investment have the lowest tolerance.

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