Sympathy dries up as bills flood in

Après le deluge... it's the insurance bill. The disaster of last year's flooding across Britain is turning into an insurance crisis this year.

Tony Blair popped into Mrs Danter's flooded Gloucester home last year and offered lots of sympathy. Unfortunately, she has not had much else. The authorities won't do anything to improve flood defences near her home because there's no payoff under the Treasury's "cost-benefit" ratios.

And now Norwich Union wants nearly four times as much cash as last year to continue giving her cover against floods.

NU warned earlier this year that its losses resulting from floods were alarmingly high, and that it might have to stop offering such cover. Britain, after all, is one of the few countries in the world in which flooding is covered under household insurance policies.

True, Mrs Danter was still offered a policy - but at a price and an "excess" that puts it beyond her pension income.

So, what happens next? Householders, many on low incomes, are condemned to remaining in properties where their possessions are routinely damaged or destroyed, and which become unsaleable because no mortgage company will offer a buyer a loan against the house.

Two weeks ago we highlighted a government scheme where tenants on council estates got access to cheap household insurance with a block-bought policy arranged by the local council - but paid for individually through the rent.

It may now be time for local councils in flood areas to put together similar block policies for private as well as tenanted houses as the only affordable way to find insurance.