Professional AdviceYou are here : News and Press » Latest Releases » Water » Water Resources
|
CLA backs Efra call for the Government to support flood-risk property ownersThe CLA today (Thursday, 5 July) backed the House of Commons' Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Select Committee's call for more support for owners of property at risk of flooding.
Responding to the Efra Committee's Report on the Government's Water White Paper, CLA President Harry Cotterell said: "The Government's level of funding needs to be increased to give confidence to the insurance industry to provide cover for properties at risk from flooding. And there should be a revision of the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management funding process so that rural properties are not disadvantaged."
The CLA President said that, as the funding process has only recently been introduced and is essentially a pilot scheme which needs to be reviewed, the Government must guarantee future investment and agree a further period with the insurance industry to be covered by a new statement of principles.
Mr Cotterell said: "The insurance industry does not like subsidising the premiums paid by owners insuring properties in high-risk areas by increasing the premiums of owners in areas at lower risk of flooding. Therefore, only Government support will give confidence to the insurance business to provide cover that is affordable.
"It is also vital the insurance industry properly recognises maintenance or improvement works carried out to flood defences by individuals or communities through reduced policy charges. Government support and endorsement is essential for this to happen."
He also said that without a clear future plan for the renewal of the agreement between the Government and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) property values will be significantly affected.
Mr Cotterell said: "You would not buy a property unless you were sure you could insure it at an affordable price."
However, the CLA President said the Efra Committee recommendation to bring forward the abstraction reform proposals using the price review would disadvantage farmers and land managers if they were not also compensated for any licence being revoked.
He said: "We need a well-constructed framework that ensures a fair allocation of water for farmers and land managers so that they can meet future food production and land management needs.
"It is unfair that farmers will have to operate in a water market which includes industries that are able to recover their costs through the pricing process. A ringfenced allocation of water for agriculture and land management would go some way to addressing the market distortion." |
Contact Derek Holliday
Join the CLA today
The CLA Game Fair 2013
Partnership Opportunities Discover how a corporate partnership with the CLA could help your business. More articles and documents [News Archive] [8 December 2011] CLA64 - A guide to private water supplies [Advisory handbooks] [24 September 2012] Water Resources Strategy for England & Wales [Consultation response archive] [7 November 2007] |
Lead adviser on European and national environmental issues including water quality (Water Framework Directive, Catchment Sensitive Farming, Nitrates Directive), water resources, fluvial and coastal defence, soil resource, climate change and fisheries.
- Policy Topics
- Policy Topics
- Site sections
- Specially for members
© 2013 Country Land and Business Association Limited (CLA). All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as expressly permitted by law.
Disclaimer
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action in reliance on or as a result of the material included in or omitted in this website can be or is accepted by the author(s), the CLA or its officers or trustees or employees or any other persons.
The Advisory Services are made available to members on the basis that members' rights to compensation and the liability (if any) of CLA and its officers and/or its staff advisers, are restricted in the following ways. In the event of any advice given by any CLA staff adviser being given negligently or otherwise being incorrect no liability whatsoever is accepted by the CLA or its officers or by its staff advisers concerned
(a) towards any person who is not the current CLA member to whom the advice was directly given,
(b) to any person in the respect of consequential loss or loss of profits, or
(c) to any person for any sum exceeding £50,000 in respect of any one enquiry (whether made or responded to orally or in writing and whether dealt with at one time or over a period of time).
Any person making use of the Advisory Services accepts such restrictions. Members should refer to appropriate professional advisers in private practice before taking any particular course of action potentially or actually involving any substantial amounts of money.
Please note that whilst the advisers are able to advise on a wide range of subjects relating to land ownership, they cannot act in place of a member's own solicitor, accountant, surveyor and tax specialist by, for example, drafting documents or corresponding on their behalf and may be precluded, by the rules of their own professions, from advising one CLA member against another CLA member in the case of conflict.
Solicitors Indemnity Fund . Solicitors in the CLA Legal Team are not covered by the Solicitors Indemnity Fund in relation to professional negligence in relation to any advice given by them.
Please note that from time to time telephone calls maybe recorded for training purposes.