Just one in 10 fully prepared for floods despite rising risks

Fewer than one in 10 organisations have a complete flood action plan in place, despite an increasing awareness of the growing UK flood risk, a new report from flood forecasting firm Previsico has revealed.

The State of Flood Resilience Report – released 25 June 2026 and now in its second annual edition – also highlighted that in contrast to the low levels of preparedness, 72% of survey respondents feel they will be personally impacted by floods in the future, and 48% said they already had first-hand experience of floods.

The report comes amid growing risk of flood damage to properties, with a 2024 report from the government’s Environment Agency finding that 6.3 million homes are currently at risk of flooding – a figure forecast to rise to 8 million by 2050.

Previsico further reported that financial worries were the main barrier to flood insurance uptake, with 35% of those surveyed indicating that cost and budget were their main concerns regarding increased cover.

It suggested that – like the uptake of smoke detectors in the 1960s – insurers should begin pricing flood detection devices into policies to help drive the widespread adoption of proactive resilience measures.

Underestimated exposure

Jonathan Jackson, chief executive at Previsico, said: “Advances in modelling, improved surface-water mapping and updated climate projections now classify roughly two-thirds of England as floodable under certain conditions, a scale of exposure that far exceeds traditional assumptions.

“Yet many organisations continue to underestimate their exposure to flood risk, despite increasingly robust data that tells a very different story. The risk and insurance sector needs to treat flood with the same seriousness long applied to fire.

“Closing that gap will require insurers and risk advisors to set clearer expectations and embed stronger resilience practices so that flood becomes a managed risk, not an escalating vulnerability.”