RURAL insurer NFU Mutual faces a bill of up to £20m following floods across the Midlands, south-west England and Wales.

Chief claims manager Matthew Scott said the company was dealing with more than 500 claims from policyholders whose homes and businesses had been damaged.

“We have already received hundreds of weather-related claims from across the UK and expect more to come in over the next few days,” he said.

“Although it’s too early to put an accurate figure on the cost of claims, we could be looking at a total bill of up to £20m for NFU Mutual alone.”

Claims include homes flooded to a depth of more than four feet, include homes flooded to a depth of over four feet - which can cost tens of thousands of pounds to dry out and repair.

Mr Scott said NFU Mutual said it put its emergency disaster plan into action on Friday, 22 November, when the scale of flooding became apparent.

This enabled claims staff, loss adjusters and flood damage restoration companies to target the worst-affected areas.

“We’ve been able to see some of the worst-affected people very quickly and have provided 62 badly-affected policyholders with immediate emergency payments of £500."

Mr Scott said: "In addition to flooded farms, many rural businesses, such as hotels, shops, offices and workshops have also suffered extensive damage and we are working with policyholders to dry out buildings and help them get up and running again."

Vehicles were also hard hit.

Modern vehicles with extensive electronics have to be 'written off' if water has got into these systems.

Complex electronics combined with low-mounted air intakes means modern cars can suffer expensive damage in even a few inches of water.

Most farmers managed to get livestock to higher ground when rivers burst their banks.

But commercial claims for flood damage to farm buildings, stored crops and farm equipment are also being dealt with.