Insurance News Archive
Property unprotected against flood risk
Britain's small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are poorly prepared for the future effects of climate change, particularly flooding, says a new report.
The study commissioned by insurance company AXA found that 70 per cent of SMEs in high risk areas are unconcerned about flooding while 90 per cent do not have proper insurance cover against climate risks.
According to the findings one in three businesses have no contingency plan in place to cope with an environmental emergency badly disrupting daily operations, while just 25 per cent view climate change as a genuine threat.
The report by Professor David Crichton of the Chartered Insurance Institute found that 46 per cent of SMEs actually believe that climate change is being blown out of proportion.
Professor Crichton disagrees: "We are reaching a tipping point with climate change. Even if global agreement can be reached on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is too late to prevent rapid growth in extreme weather and sea level rise in this country."
The chief executive of AXA Peter Hubbard said that climate change poses a genuine threat to SMEs, which employ 12 million people and form the backbone of the British economy.
"The insurance industry, government and relevant parties must work much more closely together to ensure that businesses understand the scale of the threat posed to them," said Mr Hubbard.
18 Sep 2006
