A Week in the Life of Watertight for Flood Action Week
17 October 2025
This week is Flood Action Week – the Environment Agency’s annual campaign to raise awareness of flood risk and encourage people to take proactive action to be flood ready.
It’s been a packed week for the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) community so far, and we’ve been proud to play our part throughout the week.
Sharing an insight to what our week has looked like – so far:
Monday – PFRlab Launch in Hull & Floodmobile Reception at Parliament
We kicked off the week in Hull, attending the official opening of the University of Hull’s new Property Flood Resilience Innovation and Testing Centre (PFRlab) – a pioneering facility developed with the support of the Environment Agency and Flood Re.
Designed to accelerate the development of new flood resilience solutions, the PFRlab enables UK manufacturers to design, test, and showcase products under real-world conditions. Watertight is very proud to have installed the Caro barriers at the facility.
The lab was officially opened by Emma Hardy MP, Minister for Water and Flooding, who praised the partnership working that made the facility possible and highlighted the crucial role it will play in supporting the UK’s flood adaptation goals.
Later that day, we hot-footed it back to London to attend the Parliamentary reception hosted by Flood Re - a fitting venue for the launch of the newly upgraded Floodmobile, a national resource touring the UK to raise awareness of flood resilience solutions.
The Floodmobile features an extensive array of PFR products, expert guidance and Build Back Better advice.
Tuesday – Policy Roundtable with Aviva in Parliament
Tuesday saw another significant event in Westminster, with a policy roundtable hosted by Alison Griffiths MP, Vice Chair of the Business and Trade Select Committee.
The roundtable marked the launch of Aviva’s new “Building Future Communities” report, which for the first time provides a combined assessment of flood and heat risk for UK homes by the year 2050.
We were especially proud to see Resilico - a digital flood compliance platform co-developed by Watertight - highlighted in the report as a tool to support flood-affected households through alerts, planning and resilience guidance.
Wednesday – Floodmobile National Tour
On Wednesday, Mark Arrowsmith headed to Manchester to greet the Floodmobile on its national tour as it reached the Northwest. It was great to catch-up with Mary Long-Dhonau and also Shannon Gunning, our Northwest EA lead.
Thursday – Independent Review of Property Flood Resilience
On Thursday, we headed to London for the launch of Professor Peter Bonfield’s Independent Review into Property Flood Resilience – a pivotal update for the PFR sector.
The review offers practical recommendations on how resilience can be embedded into planning, policy and delivery mechanisms at scale. A link to the report is here:
Friday – Innovation Blueprint Workshop in Lancaster
To wrap the week up, we travelled to Lancaster for a special Resilience Innovation Blueprint workshop, hosted by JBA Consulting.
Following a welcome reception from IPGRA, this technical workshop focused on the production of a best-practice blueprint for future PFR schemes – drawing from the learnings of the Defra-funded RAIN Project, in which Watertight is a key delivery partner.
It was great to contribute insights from our practical delivery experience and hear from the inspiring work of others, including Dean Ward, Hannah Baker, John Curtin, and others. The Floodmobile also arrived on site, for the finale of its national tour.
A Week of Progress
It’s fair to say that Flood Action Week has offered a powerful reminder of just how far the sector has come - and how much more we can achieve through collaboration, innovation and action.
To everyone we’ve connected with this week – thank you. It’s been full of energy and positive updates! And to those just starting their resilience journey – we’re here to support you.
For more information visit https://watertightinternational.com/.
