Breaking the banks

With many in the insurance industry still licking their wounds from last year's floods, calls for the government to create a single body to focus solely on flooding have been largely ignored. Martin Friel discusses whether it is financially viable for insurers to continue offering protection to properties at risk of flooding

The waters may have finally subsided but the high tide mark from last summer's floods has left an indelible mark upon the insurance industry. While people are still out of their homes and businesses remain dormant, the national press and the public at large has largely lost interest, but insurers, brokers and loss adjusters are still working hard to get people back in homes and in business.

The impact of these floods stretched the resources of the industry and its associated organisations to the