The Government has committed to building at least 300,000 new houses each year to satisfy the demand for new homes. The Wildlife Trust is calling for a visionary approach to house building in the UK given the sheer number of homes required. Their innovative recommendations will help to combat flooding and include permeable drives, rainwater run offs, wildflower verges and many more. You can read the full article here.
Mary Dhonau ‘Queen of Floods’ has written a really useful article. Having been flooded herself she has become an acknowledged expert on flooding. In this article she gives an overview of the flood protection measures that can be taken by property owners to protect their home or business from flooding. She details the different protection measures available.
Sometimes circumstances are such that the flood water can not be held back. If this happens and your property floods; then it needs to be able to recover as quickly as possible. This is flood resilience and in this article Mary explains the measures that can be taken to make a property flood resilient.
Her article talks about the role of the Property Care Association and its role in ensuring quality flood protection work is carried out.
You can access Mary’s advice here
Flood Re was set up to help people who live in flood risk areas to get affordable flood insurance for their homes.
Previously, homeowners struggled to get insurance to protect them if their homes had previously been flooded. If they could get a quotation, there wasn’t a choice, the premiums were high and the excess charged often exorbitant.
Flood Re set out to change that! In the first year it has written policies for 127,326 homeowners. “Before the introduction of Flood Re, only 9% of householders who had made prior flood claims could get quotes from two or more insurers, with none being able to get quotes from five or more,” notes Flood Re on its website. “Now, 95% of those households that had previously made flood claims have access to two or more quotes and 84% can get quotes from five or more insurance providers.”
If you are one of the 4.4 million people whoe home is at risk of flooding, you should check if your insurance provider has signed up to Flood Re.
To discover more about the impact of Flood Re Read more
The European Research Council has funded The FloodChange project. This project analysed data from 38 European countries between 1960 and 2010 to understand shifting patterns in river flooding.
The project found that in Western and North-eastern Europe the timing of river flooding has shifted forward by at least 15 days over the 50 year period. This means that in the UK spring flooding begins earlier.
As river flooding affects more and more people, the project anticipates that the costs of flooding will escalate by a factor of 5 over the next 30 years.
Sagar Insurance organised a Flood Fair for the local residents of Rawtenstall. UKFDA was invited to attend. We spoke to lots of residents, answering their questions and giving advice about how to protect their property from flooding.
The Flood Fair was well attended and gave residents a great opportunity to get advice and see suitable flood protection products.
UKFDA offers a no obligation survey of your property in order to recommend suitable flood protection solutions, which are tailored to meet your particular requirements and circumstances.
Flexible Flood Defence blocks are a flexible and speedy flood defence. The can be deployed quickly and easily and importantly, they are re-usable.
The Flexible Flood Defence Blocks are currently being used by The Hebden Bridge Flood volunteers who have said” In the past, we would have had to fill and carry many sandbags over a greater period of time and we would not have been able to save as many homes from damage”
You can read more Flexible Flood Blocks general information & technical specification :
You can read the more about the Hebden Bridge Flood Volunteers – how they tackled Storm Angus
If you have any questions about the Flexible Flood Defence Blocks then please call us on 0208 442 0872 or email us on info@ukflooddefencealliance.com
Here is an interesting article on natural flood management. In 2016 the Government announced it was investing £15m in natural flood management schemes; but what are they and how do they work? This article by NERC Plant Earth gives a good explanation, has some good photographs and is worth a read. Read more
A flood resilient prototype house has been opened, to show the general public and contractors that flood resilient repairs are not as complex as many people think. BRE have developed the house which shows the practical measures that can be taken to protect against water entering a property. Read more
A research study has proved that the trend for paving over front gardens is contributing to flooding in the UK. Paving means significant water runoff which contributes to flooding. As climate change occurs this will only get worse. Read this article to understand the the scale of the problem. It calls on people to depave their gardens and for regulations to be enforced to stop the growing problem of paving gardens. Read more
The government’s leading adviser on climate control has said that flooding is likely every year in the UK, but that we still need to develop a long term plan to deal with it. The interview with Professor Jon Krebs is detailed in this article in the Guardian.