Property Flood Resilience

You can never eliminate the risk of flooding, but you can reduce the risk of water getting into your property and further reduce its impact if it does get in.

A person in an orange jacket walks through a flooded street with water reaching above their ankles, with yellow barriers on one side and partially submerged road barriers on the other. The street is lined with buildings, including a timber-framed house on the left and other residential buildings in the background. The sky is overcast with gray clouds.

Flooding – the big picture

Flooding is a significant risk in the UK and around the world. Over 6.3 million properties – one in six – in England are at risk from flooding, yet only a third of those potentially affected believe their property is at risk.

Increasingly intense rainfall events, driven by climate change, mean that many floods now occur far from rivers or the coast. Surface water flooding has become a major risk, with 4.6 million properties in England vulnerable to flash flooding when heavy downpours overwhelm local drainage systems or is unable to soak away quickly.

Flooded residential street with water reaching above the fence and covering the road, houses on the right, and trees on the left.

Property Flood Resilience

Whilst engineered flood defences, flood warnings and upper catchment measures can make an improvement, it is essential for resilience to be built into individual properties. PFR includes any measures to reduce the risks to people and property enabling households and businesses to reduce flood damage, speed up recovery, reoccupation of flooded buildings and potentially obtain insurance cover more easily and affordably.

Construction worker in orange safety jacket standing in a room with various hoses and pipes, cleaning or repairing plumbing near a door and radiator.

PFR includes resistance measures (e.g. flood doors, flood barriers, self-closing airbricks) to keep water out of a property and recoverability measures, specifically measures and construction methods that reduce the damage caused, should water enter a building, to allow it to recover quickly after a flood.

PFR can be implemented at various stages in the life of a property: at design (new build); renew (planned works); refit (as part of refurbishment); recovery (after a flood event, claim); invest (with the right knowledge and advice).

A worker wearing a bright orange safety vest labeled 'Water Tight' and a raincoat is fixing a water pipe on a brick wall outside in the rain.

The average cost to householders affected by flooding is £32k. Business impact is significant with an £83k average claim for SMEs and 50 lost business days. Most striking is that 40% of businesses will fail to reopen post-flood, underscoring just how critical effective preparedness and resilience measures are.

The economic and social impacts of flooding are considerable and increasingly both homeowners and businesses are finding it more difficult to access affordable insurance.

An illustration of a suburban neighborhood with three highlighted underground systems: soakaway, infiltration basin, and permeable pavement, showing how they manage stormwater runoff.

Sustainable Drainage Systems - SUDs

4.6m properties are currently at risk from surface water flooding. This is predicted to increase to 1 in 4 homes by 2050.

Sustainable drainage systems (SUDs) are particularly useful to manage surface water flooding, caused by storm events when the capacity of our aged networks and combined sewers are unable to cope with the volume of water, particularly in urban areas with hard surfaces.

SUDs are engineered or natural interventions to reduce the amount of water entering the sewers by storing or slowing the flow of storm water at the surface. Examples are tanks, oversized pipes or natural interventions which mimic nature and provide flood risk benefits to local biodiversity such as green roofs and rain gardens.

The Code of Practice

Watertight are fully supportive of the PFR industry Code of Practice, which aims to “improve confidence in property flood resilience and subsequent take-up”.

more about the code of practice
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Get impartial advice today.

Worried about flooding? Our expert team offers independent advice to help you and your community, property assets or business better prepare against future flood damage. Fill out this quick contact form and we’ll be in touch to discuss your requirements.

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