Flood Warning List To Be Expanded

• News
• Published: 08 Feb 2010 in Household and Home Insurance

The number of homes and businesses under threat from flooding that are signed up to a free flood warning phone service is set to double, the Environment Agency has announced.

An additional half a million homes will be automatically added to the at-risk properties register, extending the scheme to almost a million properties. Homes and businesses had to sign up to be added before now, but people will have the choice of opting out if they do not wish to receive the service.

The list has been expanded in line with the advice in the Pitt Review of the floods which hit Yorkshire, the Midlands and the West Country in 2007. Flooding also hit Cumbria in November last year.

Environment Agency chairman Lord Chris Smith said: "By automatically signing up an extra 500,000 homes and businesses, we will more than double the number on our system to almost one million, giving more people vital time to get prepared for flooding, and by doing so, protecting lives and property."

From the end of February the Environment Agency will issue free flood warnings to the additional 500,000 properties with a landline that are at risk of river or sea flooding.