Well we all knew it was coming after the floods.....house insurance is to rise by 10 per cent in some cases from next Monday.  You take out insuance to protect you against unfortunate and often unplesant experiences hoping that you never have to use it.  Year after year, insurance companies are happy to take your money.  Then, when something does go wrong, who actually pays?  I always thought it was the insurance companies but no, the obvious answer is we all do.  Whether you were affected or not, the insurance companies recoup their losses from everyone.  I may be naive but that seems rather unfair to me.  Why shouldn't the government pick up the bill for disasters or the magnitude of the recent floods....but then, of course we'd still all pay through our taxation!  So either way, it's the public not the institutions that bare the brunt of disasters. 

We're told today by Yvette Cooper not to 'play politics' with housing since it is inevitable that some new housing will have to be built on flood plains.  She may be right but if this has to be the case then we need some innovative solutions to house building since failure to do so will mean yet more soggy lives for people in the future.  What about raising houses above possible flooding on stilts so that the living areas are no longer at risk.  In the Fens, you find some of the older houses with the front doors several feet above the ground to reduce the threat of flooding.  It should be perfectly possible to build houses with garages and utility rooms at ground level with other living spaces further up.  This, combined with enhanced flood protection, might reduce the human costs of flooding and well as providing an innovative approach to house building.  In the past, communities have always been built on flood plains if only to provide effective communication as well as access to drinking water and fish and, of course, the act of flooding often provided enrichment to soils for arable farming or lush grazing.  The problem with concreting over land is that it reducing the ability of soil to soak water away, something highlighted last week in the reduction of gardens. 

To return to house insurance.  Although, there are already variable amounts paid based on post-code linked, for example, to levels of crime and danger of flooding in the same way that if you have a more powerful car then you pay a higher premium for car insurance.  But you do get 'no claims discount'.  As far as I can see, this is generally not part of the home insurance package....and it should be.  It can't be that complicated...there are more cars than houses and it works for them!!