Flood claims seen hitting 1.5 billion pounds

LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) Last week's floods could cost insurers 1.5 billion pounds, loss adjustors said today, as the government defended its response to the deluge.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged help for flood victims, who are still clearing up after torrential rain hit Humberside, Yorkshire and the Midlands.

Many say the government has been slow to react to the chaos as flood waters continue to swirl around thousands of homes and businesses.

The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters said it had received 27,500 household insurance claims averaging 30,000 pounds.

It had also taken 6,800 claims from businesses at an average of 100,000 pounds each.

Some of the individual commercial claims ran into millions of pounds, said the institute's executive director Graham Cave.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu, who visited Hull today, told BBC television a swift response was needed.

''What needs to happen now is to make sure that those who lost their homes can be sorted out pretty quickly,'' he said.

Local MP and Health Secretary Alan Johnson says people in Hull especially feel they have been ignored because of its relatively remote eastern location on the River Humber.

Brown acknowledged his attention had been diverted by the bomb plots in Glasgow and London but said he was now focused on the floods.

''We are putting in more money to help the distressed areas,'' he told BBC television.

Brown's spokesman said the prime minister had already spoken to local council leaders, would speak to them again today, and would visit the flooded areas in person on Saturday.

''I will be able to say when I visit these areas that there will be also help for an emergency disaster fund that has been set up,'' Brown said.

The South Yorkshire Flood Disaster Relief Fund has already raised nearly 100,000 pounds from public donations, while Humberside authorities have set up the Hull Flood Fund.

Brown said there would be a ''comprehensive programme'' to deal with the immediate problems of the flooding as well as longer term recovery plans.

REUTERS GT BST1910