The bleak prospect facing the market town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire, due to rising flood risks, is first and foremost a problem for locals. After seven floods in four years, and with plans for new flood defences around the town abandoned after costs rose to £30m, the town council announced this month that three buildings it owns, including a theatre and historic pump rooms, no longer have insurance. Independent retailers are in a similar situation, and some are packing up as a result. The number of empty properties is growing.
Tenbury is at higher risk than most places from floods, due to its low-lying position between the River Teme and Kyre Brook. But the threat it faces is not unique, and will become more common in future. Last year UK insurers paid out a record £585m for weather-related damage to homes and possessions, after unusually severe storms led to floods in several counties, with buildings left under water in towns including Henley, Wellingborough and Tewkesbury.
Analysis by Aviva, the insurance company, found that the number of properties at risk from flooding in England is likely to rise from 6.3m to 8m by the middle of this century. In some neighbourhoods in south-east London, and the towns of Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, 90% of homes are projected to be at risk.
Current spending on flood defences is below the £1.5bn annual total recommended by the National Infrastructure Commission. In last year’s budget, future plans were said to be under review, with the latest announcement focused on making it easier for councils in poorer areas to secure funding. Natural flood management measures such as tree planting and wetlands will also be prioritised from next April. But with spending cuts as well as tax rises expected in November, climate resilience and flooding experts must keep up the pressure on ministers to take the rising threat level seriously.
The situation in Tenbury should help to focus minds, not least in the local Conservative party. Dame Harriett Baldwin, the Conservative MP who represents West Worcestershire, has said she is furious that the defences proposed for the town were not approved. But the bigger picture is that flood defences nationally are in an alarming state of disrepair following years of underinvestment. Rather than seeking to remedy this, the Tory party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch, now wants to repeal the Climate Change Act and abolish the committee of experts that advises ministers about resilience and adaptation.
This is a rightwing import. In the US state of Florida, the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has excised references to climate change from state law, despite growing evidence of the rising threat posed by extreme weather. Home insurance costs in the state rose by 42% in 2023, and more than a dozen insurers have left following a series of disasters.
The insurance industry has long been recognised as a potential ally by those struggling for stronger policies on emissions and other forms of climate risk reduction. Earlier this year, one leading insurer warned that without drastic emissions cuts, the threat of a “climate-induced credit crunch” and market paralysis would keep on rising. The uninsurable listed pump rooms in Tenbury can thus be seen as a canary in a coalmine, as well as a building whose loss – if floods end up destroying it – will by felt by thousands of people.
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