Floods reinforce the impression of harried communities at the mercy of nature and abandoned by government, emergency services and insurers. Insurance companies are the bad guys, right? It’s not that straightforward.
Insurance is one of the UK’s largest employers, and one of the UK’s largest investors, so the health of the industry affects most of us, even if we don’t own policies.
Insurance works on the principle that by covering a large number of people, the insurer will receive more in premiums than it pays out in claims.
But this means an insurer must carefully balance the risks it takes. Insure only houses on flood plains and you may go broke... Read more of Professor Rawlings blog post on the Queen Mary Media Centre.