“We can’t really afford to be surprised by some freak weather events. I think the time for us to be surprised is over because we know the risks.  We know that climate change is playing its part and we can’t claim ignorance and say: oh our system failed, sorry it was the weather. I think that excuse its not acceptable going forward.”

“Flood RE [the government-subsidized UK flood insurance scheme] is really a temporary stop-gap measure, to give those at high risk flood areas the assurance that there will be flood insurance available for them. But it doesn’t really address the fact that going forward, this might be a very unsustainable approach for the whole of the country.”