Carl Sargeant, Natural Resources Minister in the Welsh Assembly has called on the UK Government to amend the draft regulations for its flood protection scheme so that Welsh homeowners aren’t left out of pocket.
Under the ‘Flood Re’ scheme, annual insurance premiums will be capped and payouts for flood damage will come from a central pot of money. The cap will be based on Council Tax bands.
Carl Sargeant said that if the regulations are not amended, over 20,000 homes at high flood risk in Wales will pay more for their flood insurance compared with homes of equivalent value in the rest of the UK.
As the scheme currently stands Wales will receive lower subsidies than the rest of the UK and see its two highest Council Tax Bands (H and I) deemed ineligible, meaning the amount householders pay for home insurance would not be capped.
The Minister has written to his counterpart in DEFRA, Dan Rogerson MP to express his disappointment that they have so far refused to amend the regulations, despite the inequalities of the scheme having been brought to their attention by previous Welsh Government Ministers.
Carl Sargeant said,
“We support the aims of Flood Re to promote the availability and affordability of flood insurance for high risk households.
“However, there has been a longstanding disagreement over how thresholds for Flood Re have been calculated for Wales. The idea of using council tax bandings to determine the ‘cap’ that homes would pay under the scheme would be reasonable if the UK had a similar banding system for council tax, but it does not.
“The different council tax banding in place in Wales means that it is not only high value homes that will be affected but every high risk home in band C and above. For example, a family home worth £250,000 will cost £162 more per year to insure in Wales than it would in England. The difference could rise to over £1000 for higher value homes.
“And some homes with a high council tax band would not be eligible at all in Wales but the scheme would allow homes in England to the value of £1m to benefit. A clear discrepancy in policy.
“I hope the UK Government will listen to our concerns and review the situation so that when the scheme comes into force next year Welsh homeowners aren’t left paying disproportionately more for their insurance than the rest of the UK.”
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