Our thoughts and best wishes go out to LinkedIn colleagues affected by the recent floods across the UK. Rising water is remorseless and makes no distinctions, disrupting our homes, working environment and transport networks.
Responsibility for dealing with these risks is the Department for the Environment and countryside.
Although government departments are not well-known for their fast response times – when reacting to flood emergencies – there is an increasing amount of information that can be accessed online.
For example, you can sign up to receive flood warnings. See https://www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings.
You can request alerts by email, phone or text message. The service is free, and you will need to provide:
- the address you’re registering
- a phone number you can be contacted on day or night
- an email address
Relief for farmers
If past flood events are anything to go by – in the winter floods of 2015 farmers were offered financial support to cover land recovery costs – farmers may be offered specific support to cover recent damage. No doubt the NFU are already lobbying the responsible departments.
Insurance claims
This is also going to be a difficult period for property owners; not only will they have to deal with the practical difficulties due to flood damage, they will also need to negotiate with insurers to cover the necessary refurbishment costs. Most brokers will handle this for you. If you insure direct, the claims department will be your first point of contact.
Tax matters
And finally, HMRC will normally give you more time to make returns and pay tax if your business is disrupted by flooding. They will also be sympathetic if you have lost business records. To evidence these losses, make sure they are noted on insurance claims or otherwise documented.
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