Big payout for UK flood damage?
2007-08-21 18:04
Brussels - The European Commission is considering a British request for a multi-million-euro payout to help with reconstruction after flooding in central and western England early this summer, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The British government application for funding from the EU's Solidarity Fund puts the total cost of the flood damage at &euro,4.33bn, said Commission spokesperson Katharina von Schnurbein.
That amount exceeds the &euro,3.26bn threshold required to draw from the EU fund and, if verified by the Commission, could translate into a maximum payout of &euro,145m, she said.
"This is the maximum because now what the Commission will have to do, together with the UK authorities ... is to assess whether the damage is actually that high or whether it is slightly lower because now it has been estimated on the basis of satellite images and there might be some costs in there which in the end which will not be eligible."
The final amount paid out "is likely to be slightly lower", Schnurbein said, adding that the British authorities had given quite a large range for their estimation of the possible payout, at between £,62.5m and £,125m.
Any payout would be unlikely to be made for "at least seven-eight months" as the damage estimates would have to be checked and then agreement reached by the 27 EU member states before Britain received the aid, she added.
Britain's Communities and Local Government Minister John Healy earlier this month referred to the EU help as "a useful addition to the package of support we're already putting in place".
Major disasters
The aid would be for Humberside, in northeast England, and York, in northern England, which were hit by floods in June, and for towns affected by more flooding last month along the Thames and Severn rivers.
The floods, Britain's worst for 60 years, led to almost 60 000 claims for damage in both the north and south of England, said the Association of British Insurers.
Four people were killed in the June floods which affected north and central England, while three died in the south, all in Tewkesbury, where the waters reached the feet of the town's ancient abbey.
Since the Solidarity fund came into force in 2002, the European Commission has received 41 applications for financial assistance of which 22, mostly for major disasters, led to the granting of more than €1bn total.