Reflecting on Flood & Coast 2026

Another Flood & Coast has taken place and, as always, it has proved to be one of the most important dates in the calendar. It is always refreshing to step away from Teams calls and emails to instead spend time with people, face-to-face.

For the Watertight team, the three-day event in Liverpool was a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with partners and clients, meet new contacts and to share experiences from PFR projects we’ve worked on across the country.

Before the event officially opened, we were delighted to support a pre-event dinner, which brought together many members of the PFR community. The evening provided a fantastic opportunity to catch-up with friends and colleagues, welcome new faces, and set the tone for what proved to be a highly productive week.

Our thanks go to everyone who attended, and to Shelley Evans and Darren Blockley from IPFRA for their efforts in coordinating the details.

A Busy PFR Zone

The PFR Zone, which included the Floodmobile, proved to be a great focal point of the exhibition, attracting a steady stream of visitors throughout the event.

From local authorities and Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) to consultants, insurers, housing providers and resilience professionals, there was a genuine appetite to discuss the role of PFR in making sure more households, businesses and communities are better prepared for flooding, which also included many discussions and enquiries regarding Resilico Connect & Resilico Enterprise.

It was particularly encouraging to see increasing recognition that PFR is not the sole answer to flooding, but is an essential part of the wider resilience jigsaw, alongside natural flood management, traditional flood defences, planning, insurance and community preparedness.

Key Highlights

One of the highlights of the week was seeing the ResilientRoch project recognised at the Flood & Coast Excellence Awards.

Watertight is proud to have played a role in this FCRIP programme, which has demonstrated the benefits of combining property flood resilience measures with wider community engagement, advice and support. The award was thoroughly deserved - well done to everyone involved.

The Excellence Awards also provided an opportunity to celebrate the achievements across the industry as a whole. We joined colleagues to recognise some truly outstanding projects and individuals.

Another memorable moment was joining colleagues to celebrate the first anniversary of IPFRA at a special reception hosted by Flood Re.

The evening provided an opportunity to reflect on the progress made during IPFRA's first 12-months, plus the event marked the retirement of Mary Long-Dhonau OBE from the Floodmobile. Mary and the Floodmobile have become known for helping communities before and after flood events and so it was a fitting opportunity to recognise Mary’s huge contribution and to celebrate everything she has achieved.

Thanks

Finally, the conference also provided an opportunity for us to actively participate in the formal PFR Roundtable, chaired by Ian Gibbs. It provided an opportunity to hear updates on key projects, emerging innovation, standards, as well as the progress being made against the recommendations and actions within Peter Bonfield's FloodReady Review. There was a clear sense of momentum in the room.

Ultimately, Flood & Coast is always a busy week, but it is also one of the best opportunities to benchmark where the sector is and where it is heading. We left Liverpool with no doubt that the industry is continuing to move in the right direction.

Thank you to everyone who visited us, to our colleagues who participated including Mark and Toni who were on the stand throughout, and to everyone who contributed to another excellent event.