Romney Marsh has traditionally been regarded as one of the more high risk flood areas in the country. In the past this had made it harder for people to get home insurance, although a number of local firms who have a good understanding of the risk levels have helped many residents to solve this problem.
There has been considerable investment in flood defences in our area, not least with the completion of the new sea wall at Dymchurch. This has had a big impact in reducing the flood risk but this information was not readily available for residents and the insurance industry. Earlier in the year I asked the Secretary of State for the Environment, Owen Paterson, if he could ensure that the most up to date information and flood risk mapping for the Romney Marsh area was publically available. This work has now been completed and has been published on the Environment Agency’s website. It shows that most of the Marsh, including Dymchurch, Lydd and New Romney is considered to be a low risk for flooding. If you are having problems getting insurance for your home you can look up the exact risk profile for where you live on the Agency website and check that your insurer is also using this latest information.
The Government has also recently announced that it has come to a new agreement with the insurance industry which will guarantee that home insurance will continue to be available to people living in high risk areas for flooding. A special fund, supported by the industry, will be created to cover people living in the most at risk properties. Flood insurance premiums for those properties in the fund would be provided at a capped price, set against council tax bands. Prices for flood insurance in high risk areas would start at no more than £210 a year in Council Tax Bands A and B, rising to £540 a year for Band G. The rest of the household insurance price for risks such as fire or burglary would be set by the insurer as normal. These changes will not affect the premiums paid by customers who do not live in high risk areas. This new deal updates the previous ‘Statement of Principles’ agreement that had been in place between the industry and the government. The Department for the Environment is running a consultation on this new scheme and you can find out more about this on their website www.gov.uk/defra.
Last Friday I was in the House of Commons to support the European Union Referendum Bill which safely cleared its first parliamentary hurdle. This Bill would guarantee a referendum on whether Britain should stay in or come out of the European Union. I believe that we should all have our say on this important issue. Our relationship with the European Union has to change. The EU has become too centralising and taken too many powers away from the nation states. For me any question of our country stating in the EU, would have to be based on a new deal, where our relationship was more like the one we had with the Common Market we originally joined in the 1970s.