Be Flood Smart launches at HR Wallingford
Yesterday, we were delighted to support the launch of the Be Flood Smart campaign at the BeFloodReady Property Flood Resilience Centre, located at HR Wallingford.
The campaign encourages householders to adapt their homes with Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures to better protect against the impact of future flooding. It is spearheaded by FloodRe, the joint initiative between the UK government and the insurance industry, and the Environment Agency.
According to FloodRe, homeowners are facing average costs of £32,000 to fix flood damage as flood risk in the UK grows. Beyond the financial cost of flooding, homeowners face significant emotional and physical costs and huge disruption to their lives, yet flood awareness and resilience among property owners remains low.
The launch featured HR Wallingford’s Emma Brown, an expert in flood modelling, who highlighted that climate change means flooding will affect ever more households and businesses.
She also showcased our work in Northamptonshire, which uses sophisticated computer modelling to identify properties at risk from flooding, and calculates the cost benefit of installing flood products.
Emma was able to reveal indicative results from the study, suggesting that for every £1 spent, property owners will save £6 in potential flood damage – quite an extraordinary statistic.
The BeFloodReady Property Flood Resilience Centre is the UK’s first dedicated facility to deliver accredited training on the specification, installation and maintenance of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures. Funded by Defra as part of its PFR Pathfinders programme, the centre will be used to upskill professionals from a wide range of industries.
Installing PFR products can reduce the risk of flood damage to individual homes, speed up repair work, and help people move back into their properties quicker after a flood.
Measures can include raising electrical sockets and white goods away from floor level, installing self-closing air bricks and flood resistant doors and replacing flooring with waterproof tiling and grout. PFR limits the cost of repair work by as much as 73% for properties after a major flood.
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