£20m bill looms for flood damage

Published on Saturday 16 August 2008 23:42

SCOTLAND is facing a bill of more than £20m to repair the damage caused by a summer of heavy flooding, experts have warned.

Sustained wet weather and torrential rain prompted chaos and flash floods across much of the country last week with Fife, Ayrshire and Strathclyde among the worst affected areas. Some streets in Renfrewshire were swamped by two feet of water, and Edinburgh received 17 millimetres of rain in one four-hour burst.

With insurance bills for houses damaged by flooding estimated at an average of 37,000, and businesses liable to claim around 100,000, insurance experts say the multi-million pound bill is a "conservative estimate".

One expert said: "On top of damage to homes and businesses comes structural damage to foundations, paths, roadways."

The Scottish Government has already pledged 126m to bolster the country's flood defences, but environmental group WWF Scotland has urged it to demolish flood-plain housing, claiming that some properties are too vulnerable to be worth protecting.

Extreme weather and heavy downpours continued to cause widespread flooding in parts of the UK yesterday, particularly in Northern Ireland, with one underpass in Belfast reported to be under 15 feet of water.