Flooding disaster in 2007 cost £3.2 bn

The Environment Agency study warns the costs of flooding in future could soar unless dramatic improvements in flood defences are made.

It is published as parts of Yorkshire are once again on alert for flooding following heavy rain which hastened a thaw of lying snow after four weeks of bitterly cold weather.

The report lays bare the economic impact on every area of life following what it describes as a "national catastrophe" which hit parts of Yorkshire, the Midlands and the West Country in the summer of 2007.

According to the review, households and businesses incurred about two thirds of the total costs of the flooding, with the average cost for each flooded home between 23,000 and 30,000 and the cost for flooded businesses averaging between 75,000 and 112,000.

Some 30 per cent of affected households were forced to relocate to temporary accommodation – a third for more than a year. The agency said that while 95 per cent of businesses were covered by insurance, a quarter of affected homeowners were not fully insured.

Farmers lost an average of 1,150 per hectare of land flooded at an overall cost to agriculture of an estimated 50m.

It says the floods caused 660m in damage to infrastructure and services.

Water supplies and treatment plants were worst hit followed by roads, electricity supplies, agriculture and disruption to schools. Utility companies and their customers incurred 330m of these costs, including 186m by water companies and 139m by electricity and gas suppliers.

About 400,000 pupil days at schools were lost.

Other costs included:

Communications and transport including damage caused to roads of 230m

Bills to local government of 140m

Work by emergency services of 27m.

The report added: "The scale and seriousness of the summer 2007 floods were sufficient to classify them as a national disaster.

"For many people affected, the floods were a personal tragedy from which full recovery may be very slow or not possible."

Robert Runcie, Environment Agency director of flood and coastal risk management, said: "The high costs of flooding underline the importance for continued investment in reducing flood risk, particularly as climate change means that we are more likely to see more severe and frequent flooding in future.

"The Environment Agency recently announced plans to protect an extra 200,000 homes and businesses in England and Wales from flooding in the five years to 2015.

"However, investment in the building and maintaining of flood defences will need to almost double to 1bn a year by 2035 to keep pace with climate change."

He said otherwise the average annual cost of flood damage could rise by 60 per cent by 2035. The agency calculates damage avoided by carrying out its investment proposals could save England 180bn over the next 100 years.

Thirteen people died during the floods. An estimated 350,000 people were left without water for up to 16 days and 150,000 properties lost electricity for an average of 15 hours.

The flooding of water treatment works in Tewkesbury created one of the UK's worst post-Second World War emergencies.

Yorkshire Water was worst hit by flooding of waste water treatment plants, costing it 70m overall including 50m in Hull alone. Seven motorways were shut including the M1 which was closed for 40 hours amid fears of the Ulley dam, near Rotherham, collapsing. Seven in 10 people affected by flooding said their health had been hit.

WORRIES GROW OVER HEATING BILLS

The recent cold snap left four out of 10 people worrying about how they will pay their energy bill this month.

Research for Which? Switch, published today, found around 65 per cent of people saying they had been thinking about their energy bill more than usual because of the cold weather; 38 per cent were worried about how they would pay it.

The research found that 14 per cent of people dipped into their own or their children's savings to ensure they could afford to pay for their gas or electricity, and 18 per cent made cuts, such as cancelling gym membership or leisure activities.

People also took steps to try to reduce their energy usage during the cold spell, with 84 per cent putting on more clothes.