UK insurers are expected to foot a £500m bill following the storms and flooding of December = and January, PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated
As well as insured losses of £500m, wider economic losses are expected to be £630m, said PwC insurance partner Mohammad Khan.
Khan said it was too early to determine if the weather would have an impact on insurer results for next year.
'Last year, the weather was very benign from January to October and insurers' results from household and commercial property business were positive, even allowing for the December storms and floods,' he said.
Meanwhile, Deloitte has said £500m seemed a likely figure for insurers to pay out if the accumulation of extreme weather claims goes on into February.
Deloitte insurance partner James Rakow added: 'Flood claims cost on average £30,000 to £40,000. In the run up to New Year, 1,300 properties were flooded. Since the New Year, week-by-week flood claims have continued to mount and last weekend alone a further 270 additional flooded properties were reported by the Environmental Agency.'
He said the recent run of extreme weather, starting with the St. Jude storm that hit in October last year, threatened to dent insurers' profits and could potentially force a lot of firms to recover costs by increasing property insurance premiums.
Rakow also noted that if Flood Re - the proposed government-backed flood insurance scheme - is launched in 2015 it could help to keep premiums down for high-risk flood zones. Deloitte has estimated that the premiums and levies going into Flood Re range between £300m to £400m for each of the next five years.
'If the frequency of flood claims increases, or more areas get classified as high-risk, this could increase significantly in five to ten years,' he said.
Under current proposals for Flood Re, premiums will be capped at between £210 and £540 depending on a property's council tax band.
