Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of small businesses in the British Insurance Brokers’ Association’s new affordable flood insurance scheme.

The British Insurance Broker Association (BIBA) insurance product, launched in December 2016, provides flood insurance for small businesses that have struggled to access it to-date.

Since the scheme launched it continues to grow in line with BIBA’s expectations. With a balanced and sensible approach BIBA are now insuring over 150 businesses who have previously had problems accessing insurance.

The BIBA scheme also insures against the excess of a policy. This product has been taken up 1,100 times in the past 12 months. Its value was evidenced by last Wednesday’s flooding in Lancaster and Cumbria, where three claims have been reported so far for commercial properties, each with a £25,000 flood excess.