Zurich-based insurance data company, PERILS, has released an updated industry loss footprint for the floods in the United Kingdom in February 2020.
The floods mainly affected Wales, the Midlands and Yorkshire from 9 to 29 February 2020. In total, an estimated 4,800 properties were flooded, although many more buildings were successfully protected by flood defences.
PERILS has estimated the insured property market loss to be £375 million. This was based on claims data which had been collected from the majority of the affected insurance companies.
This figure compares to PERILS’ previous loss estimates of £297 million, which were released on 2 April and 29 May 2020.
Due to the industry challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, PERILS did not carry out a second round of data collection prior to issuing its second report on 29 May, therefore the estimate remained unchanged.
PERILS’ third report on the February 2020 flood event provides a detailed breakdown of property losses by CRESTA zone, along with the data further divided into Property lines of business and split into buildings, contents and business interruption losses.
There will be an updated estimate of market loss in February 2021, in line with PERILS reporting schedule. This will mark twelve months after the event end date.
The February 2020 Floods in the UK were the result of record-breaking rainfall which led to extensive river and flash flooding.
Heavy rainfall was mainly associated with the three named storms, Ciara, Dennis and Jorge. Flood damage during the period occurred throughout the entire UK.
While the industry loss from the February 2020 isn’t an anomaly, it added to other weather-related losses experienced during the winter 2019/2020 period.
Floods in November and December 2019, as well as the February floods, has been estimated by PERILS to have cost the UK insurance industry approximately £400 million.
The resulting total industry loss figure from both the storms and floods during the 2019/2020 UK winter is in the region of £775 million, according to PERILS.
