A DIGITAL map, which will be used to assess insurance premiums in flood-hit areas, has been welcomed by home-owners.

However, agencies who regularly battle the threat of rising water insist the technology is not new.

Insurance company Norwich Union yesterday confirmed it would be spending millions of pounds on the project, which could affect premiums for up to 600,000 homes across the country.

At present, many are assessed purely on their postcodes.

As a result, homeowners who have never made a flooding claim are paying more because of those around them who have.

However, the new digital map can identify individual properties and the circumstances under which they are likely to be flooded.

Norwich Union will launch the scheme across Norfolk and Shropshire, with the rest of the country included before the end of the year.

"Because of the level of detail provided by the map, people who previously thought their property was uninsurable could now obtain cover," said Laurence Loughnane, Norwich Union head of underwriting.

"The ability to pinpoint whether an individual house is on a hill or raised ground, and how floodwaters will flow, is invaluable in the fight against flood damage.

"The new information will help to convey to customers just how severe the flooding risk to their property will be and how often a flood can be expected."

National Flood Forum communications director Di Keal - whose home, in Norton, North Yorkshire, was flooded in 1999 and 2000 - welcomed what she hoped would end of the insurance "postcode lottery".

She also suggested that insurance companies should also take into account any improvements home-owners had made to protect their properties.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency welcomed the initiative, but said the agency had been developing a similar system since last year.

"The Norwich Union's new map is a good step forward, but is designed purely for insurance purposes," he said.

"The Environment Agency embarked on a £5m flood mapping programme in 2003, which aims to meet the many business and external needs for better flood maps over the next five years."

The agency hopes to have its version of the map available to view on its website at www.environment-agency. gov.uk by September.