‘Increasingly unpredictable nature of flooding’ requires updated sector responses

The “increasingly unpredictable nature of flooding” across the UK, spurred on by climate change and urbanisation, is necessitating the updating of insurance sector strategies when responding to and planning for the peril. 

That was according to Charlie Bush, Zurich’s head of large, complex and commercial claims, one of the experts who spoke as part of a panel on Insurance Times’ Flood Ready: The future of insurer event response webinar, hosted 25 September 2025 in association with Iceye.

Bush explained: ”There used to be a fairly traditional pattern as to when you would expect bad weather and flood, but some of the worst floods we’ve seen have occurred when the ground is particularly dry during the summer and you get a severe flash flood, which can also happen in urban areas where there’s a higher percentage of concrete and paving.

“The reality is that this is connected to climate change almost undoubtedly and it’s only going to get worse. Therefore, the more we can learn from these events and the more we can prepare for them, so much the better.” 

Paul Sowden, Iceye’s strategic account manager for the UK, Australasia and Africa, noted that flooding in the UK was particularly challenging to deal with because of the nation’s topography, leading to very localised events. 

He said: ”What surprises me about engaging with insurers in the UK is actually how often they are surprised by flooding. One of our partners describes managing flood in the UK as a little bit like Whack-a-mole, because we’re this island of valleys and our flooding is very localised. 

“But, while it is very localised, a big flood event can lead to hundreds of localised events that are all happening at once, so helping insurers to understand where that flooding has occurred is a real challenge.” 

Sowden added that insurance sector firms had to be ready to respond to this sort of large event with speed and accuracy, because although “we’ve not seen any sorts of super losses from flood that have challenged the market” in the last couple of years, “at some point in the next few months or years, we are going to get a significant event”. 

Updating strategies

Major insurers utilise a whole suite of tools to model, prepare for and organise their responses to flooding, but heightened customer expectations and the traumatic nature of flood risks for policyholders mean that they must continue to improve the speed and effectiveness of their responses. 

Laura Lazarus, Aviva’s head of personal lines homes claims, who also joined the webinar’s panel, explained: ”The past few years have really been about making sure that we understand how difficult these events can be for our customers. A flood event, in particular, is incredibly traumatic and there’s often no quick fix. 

“Our learning is about making sure we centre our flood responses around our customers’ needs and how we can best support them, get to them quickly and do the things that matter to them most as quickly as possible.” 

Both Lazarus and Bush emphasised that proactive communication to customers at risk of flood was vital before floods hit, with outreach strategies about how to best mitigate risk and minimise damage vital to support claims experience. 

Sowden added: “One of the big challenges insurers really do struggle with is understanding what is happening on the ground. At the moment, most insurers are largely dependent on media reports, a little bit of meteorology and claims to know where they need to prioritise their response. 

“Speed matters when getting into people’s homes – it’s about a matter of hours sometimes, not days or weeks. The technology does now exist to help improve that situational awareness from days to hours.” 

• To view the recent Flood Ready: The future of insurer event response webinar on demand, click here