A new, independent report launched today is aimed at helping people better protect their homes and businesses from risk of flooding and recover more quickly if the worst happens.

Chaired by Dr Peter Bonfield, the Property Flood Resilience Action Plan is the outcome of a collaboration between central government, the Environment Agency, insurers, surveyors, materials producers, the legal profession and flood action groups.

It covers assistance for flood victims, small businesses, building standards and certification, and better communication to change behaviour. In all these areas, the report looked to highlight barriers and long-term solutions to better prepare the UK for flooding.

In late 2015 Dr Bonfield was asked by Rory Stewart, the previous Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs to bring commercial interests together in a Roundtable to consider how to best enable and encourage the use of property level resilience measures for buildings at risk of being flooded. Introducing the report, Dr. Bonfield commented:

“Despite the obvious advantages of the approach, the take up of flood resilient measures remains low. It is not yet normal practice for properties in areas at high flood risk to be made more resilient following a flood.”

“ This Report has made a number of recommendations that aim to make the installation of flood resilient measures part of ‘normal’ business practice for those involved in the repair of buildings post flooding, and also to help them be proactively taken up by home and building owners exposed to flood risk.”

Key issues addressed in the report include:

• whether building regulations and certification can be better used to encourage flood resistant and resilient construction methods;
• how rigorous independent standards can provide confidence in flood products across the industry;
• how insurers can further increase their support for property owners installing flood resistant measures, particularly at the repair stage.
• A programme of work undertaken by Flood Re to provide the evidence base over time, needed to understand how householders and insurers can be supported and potentially incentivised by Flood Re in the future to manage the risk of flooding and reduce the cost of claims through resilience and other measures.

A “one stop shop” advice web portal, www.centre4resilience.org, has also been established to make it easier for people to find the most relevant information on better protecting their properties against flooding.

The advice – targeted at homeowners, business owners and third parties such as insurers – includes:

• precautionary actions to take to better protect your property from flooding;
• actions to take if your property is in imminent danger from flooding;
• live flood warnings;
• recent case studies and research.

A number of the organisations involved in the report are already working more closely to help recently flooded homeowners – with the Business Emergency Resilience Group (BERG), part of Business in the Community, setting up flood advisory services in three local authorities hit by flooding last winter.

Floods Minister Thérèse Coffey said:

“The impact of flooding on people’s lives is not just financial, it can be emotionally devastating. This new action plan brings business and government together so it will be easier for people to take action to better protect themselves and their properties.”

“Our unprecedented £2.5 billion investment in flood defences will better protect 300,000 properties from floods by 2021. But property-level measures are key to ensuring those who are unfortunate enough to suffer flooding can get back in their homes and businesses sooner and minimise the impact.”

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has also separately produced a new consumer guide  to resilient flood repair which insurers are helping to circulate.

Director General of the Association of British Insurers, Huw Evans, said:

“Being flooded is horribly traumatic, not only because of the immediate devastation, but because drying out and repairing badly affected properties can take so long. In the wake of last winter’s floods insurers offered those affected practical help in applying for government grants and arranging for resilient repair works.”

“We will continue to work with the Government, Environment Agency and others on how to encourage more people to flood-proof their homes and businesses, so people can get their lives back to normal as quickly as possible.”

Click here to download the Property Flood Resilience Action Plan

Waterbriefing is media partner with the Environment Agency’s major three-day conference and exhibition Flood and Coast 2017 which takes place from 28th to 30th March 2017 in Telford.  Click here  for more information