Water Bill

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Steve McCabe

Monday 6th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

Is it the hon. Lady’s understanding that not only would small businesses and micro-businesses in commercial premises not be covered by Flood Re, but people who run businesses from their own homes would find it almost impossible to get insurance under the arrangements as they stand?

[Miss McIntosh]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s intervention, but I believe that homes generally are covered. Our Government have persisted with his Government’s arbitrary choice of 2009 as the relevant year, although this is a new Bill and we have a still relatively new coalition Government. I was very taken by what the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (Joan Walley) said in a previous debate about 2009 having been plucked from the air as an arbitrary date, and many people will not realise that homes built after 2009 on a floodplain are simply not covered by insurance. One of the purposes of tonight’s debate is to entice the Government to seek a different year—it could be 2013 or 2015, but let us be imaginative.