Zurich UK expands support for flood-prone customers as it joins Flood Re’s Build Back Better scheme
13 June 2023
- Eligible customers will receive up to £10,000 for flood resilience measures over and above the cost of work to repair damage caused by a flood
- Zurich already offers comprehensive support for households affected by flooding, including free counselling support
- Zurich urged the government to reform its own £5,000 flood grants by making the support available to households in deprived areas before flooding strikes
Zurich UK has joined Flood Re’s Build Back Better (BBB) scheme to help reduce the impact of future flooding on homeowners.
The scheme will enable eligible Zurich customers to access up to £10,000 to pay for the installation of flood resilience measures when repairing their properties after a flood.
According to the Association of British Insurers, the annual cost of flood damage across the UK is currently £700m – a figure that is expected to rise as climate change worsens.1
Flood Re’s Build Back Better scheme aims to limit the financial and emotional cost of flooding by making properties more resistance to floods.
Under the solution, flood-hit customers will be able to pay for flood resilience measures such as raised electrical sockets, self-closing air bricks, non-return valves, along with flood-resistant doors and the replacement of wooden floors with waterproof tiling and grout.
John Keppel, Zurich’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said:
“From heatwaves to flooding, the UK is already feeling the impact of the UK’s changing climate. We need to act now to ensure our communities are better prepared to withstand, and recover from, more extreme weather events.
“Damage caused by flooding has a devastating impact on people’s homes, health and livelihoods. Investing in flood resilience measures can reduce the distress and disruption caused by flooding, and help people to return to their normal lives quicker.”
Andy Bord, CEO, Flood Re said:
“We are delighted that Zurich UK has become the latest major insurer to sign up to our ground-breaking Build Back Better scheme as we know that investing in property level resilience can significantly lessen the damage caused by future flooding, reduce the stress and trauma of those impacted, and enable householders to return to their homes sooner.
“The addition of Zurich to the already impressive list of insurers taking part in the scheme also marks another major step forward towards our vision for Build Back Better to become a standard part of home insurance policies in the UK. This outcome, together with continued investment in flood defences and appropriate controls on building development, will help ensure the UK is better able to manage the effects of climate change and increased flooding.”
As climate change increases the risk of flooding, Zurich has continued to expand the range of support it offers to customer before, during and after flood events.
Zurich is the only UK insurer to offer free counselling to flood-affected customers and their immediate families. The insurer has also pioneered a new approach to managing flood claims, requiring loss adjusters to consider flood resilience improvements as part of flood repairs.
For its local authority customers, Zurich Municipal has launched free flash flood alerts to help protect over 50,000 community assets, from social housing to schools. Zurich Resilience Solutions has also launched new Climate Change Resilience Services to help customers adapt to flood hazards.
In other innovations, Zurich has partnered with AirBnB to expand the range of temporary accommodation options for customers flooded out of their homes, and introduced sustainable reinstatement options, such as repair not replace, to reduce the carbon impact of flooding. The company also pays upfront for drying out costs due to the cost of living crisis.
Zurich called on the government to reform its own £5,000 flood resilience grants, which are only available to property owners after a flood event. It urged ministers to make the grants available upfront in the most deprived, flood-prone areas of the country. It comes after Zurich’s Flash Flood Resilience Index found nearly a million people in deprived areas of England are at heightened risk of flash floods.
Keppel added:
“There is a powerful case for the government to reform its flood grants by proactively targeting the funding at households in deprived, flood prone areas, where the impacts of repeated flooding are most deeply felt.”
The Build Back Better scheme will be available to Zurich personal lines customers from later in 2023 following Flood Re’s onboarding process.