Produced in association with ICEYE
How would you describe the evolving nature of the flood threat in the UK?
Over 5.5m UK properties are exposed to flood risk – and climate change will increase this.
The government spends £2bn a year on flood protection maintaining extensive flood defence networks, yet these are increasingly being breached.
During Storm Babet for example, while thousands of properties were protected, well over 2,000 properties were still inundated – many in locations previously flooded.
We’ve seen major surge defence erected since the 2013 winter floods, but a recent study by the Gallagher Research Centre and HR Wallingford puts 60,000 properties still at surge risk – rising to 77,000 by 2050.
The country certainly benefits from high levels of flood insurance penetration – over 90% according to DEFRA.
It has a robust insurance market underpinned by Flood Re which wrote 265,826.policies in 2022/23. Yet this backstop is temporary and, as studies predict increasing flood exposure due to a warming climate and rising sea levels, insurers will increasingly have to take the strain.
