Insurance Proposal

Given that some of the people in Toll Bar and Hull who suffered in the 2007 floods are still arguing it out with the insurance companies, I would like to propose a simple solution to stop the same thing happening in Cockermouth, Keswick, Workington et al. This could only apply to people who have insurance in place, but at least it's better than nothing.

Given that they need help STRAIGHT AWAY, but the insurance companies are going to be overwhelmed by claims and given that (from experience) I know that even a simple claim will be bitterly fought in a sort of hand to hand, house to house, Stalingrad style resistance until finally you have to go round their office, grasp them by the ankles, invert them, and shake them til the ££ drop out of their pockets, to get them to pay up, I think the banks should take up the slack in the interim.

Since it's all our money anyway these days, what the government should do is to declare a specific disaster zone, then any business with insurance within the zone who has been damaged by the floods can have a visit and a desktop valuation from the bank. Say for instance, you have insurance which will cover a claim, and the bank agrees that the claim is £50,000. They advance you the money as an immediate interest free advance. This allows you to get up and running again QUICKLY, so that your business can start generating income again. In the meantime, you pursue the insurance claim, and when it comes through, the money goes to repay the bank. If there is any shortfall between the bank;s desktop valuation amount and the actual insurance payout, that is transmuted to a fixed interest rate fixed term loan, underwritten by the disaster fund. Say the bank advanced you £50,000, but the insurance when it came through was only £47,500, the £2500 gets transmuted to a fixed loan.

Since the banks seem to have a never-ending appetite for taxpayers' money, and will never be happy until they are wearing a suit made entirely of money and sitting down to a dinner of roast money in a money sauce with a side salad of money, I think it is the least they can do.

I'd also suggest that next summer every tourist attraction within the National Park asks for an additional voluntary contribution/tax of 50p per adult visitor, to be passed on to the disaster fund. This money could go towards alleviating the plight of the people who were unable to get insurance because of previous problems with flooding, of which I understand there are a substantial number.

The government needs to step in and take over the process of obtaining advances quickly, for those in the defined zone, until the insurance companies catch up. I am being charitable to the insurance companies here and assuming that they will catch up, setting my own experiences aside for now. Make the most of this unexpected leniency on my part. I must be going soft.

Builders, electricians, etc., etc., still have to do the work, and they too are in limited supply.
Once again, the state could organise gangs of them and get them bussed up there, I am sure there is an army of skilled tradesmen, brickies etc in the rest of the UK on short time or with no work because the construction industry is in the doldrums, who would welcome a tour of four weeks paid work in the Lakes. Open up some of the mothballed space at army camps and RAF stations within driving distance of the disaster area to provide accommodation.

The scale of this thing is going to require a Dunkirk Armada of White Transits heading up the M6, and a promise of organised, guaranteed work for a term at the end of the journey. Sort of like Auf Wiedersehen Pet, but bigger.