Why surface water flooding is rising, and what households and businesses can do about it
Surface water flooding is one of the fastest growing risks facing the UK, and it has just had a national spotlight shone on it. Flood Protection Solutions is proud to have helped raise awareness of flood risk on a recent edition of BBC One’s Rip Off Britain, alongside Gloria Hunniford.
Our founder and director Simon Crowther, a Chartered Civil Engineer who sits on the DEFRA Property Flood Resilience Roundtable, appeared as Flood Risk Advisor on the programme. The piece focused on surface water flooding, the latest Environment Agency mapping, and what homeowners can do to check the flood risk at their own property. As the BBC and Sky News’s preferred flood risk consultant, Simon is regularly asked to comment on flooding in the national media, and we are pleased to have used the platform to help people better understand a risk that affects more of the country every year.
UK properties are now at risk of flooding, a 43% rise since the last assessment. There are now three times as many properties at high risk of surface water flooding than from rivers and the sea combined.
Source: National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA), Environment Agency, 2024
A risk that has been formally upgraded
The figures are striking, and they have already prompted a formal response from government. Surface water flooding has been upgraded in the National Risk Register, where it now sits alongside river and coastal flooding as one of the highest environmental risks faced in England. Climate change is driving shorter, more intense bursts of rainfall, the kind that overwhelms drainage systems in minutes rather than hours. Many of the places now affected have never flooded before, which is why simply relying on flood history is no longer enough.
For households and businesses, the practical implication is the same: check your flood risk, understand it properly, and plan ahead. Doing nothing is no longer a neutral position.
What we do, and who we work with
Flood Protection Solutions is a flood defence specialist working with homeowners, businesses, local authorities and emergency responders across the UK and beyond, including for the supply of:
- Flood barriers and rapid response equipment, including our market-leading range of flood barriers and property-level protection products such as flood-rated airbricks, used by the Environment Agency, local resilience forums and private organisations to protect property and infrastructure during flood events.
What ties this work together is a focus on practical, proven solutions. Flood defence is not theoretical for our clients. It is what stands between their property, their staff, their stock or their critical infrastructure and the next storm. Recent case studies, including a resilient home protected with flood barriers and a flood wall and a driveway flood barrier that saved a Nottinghamshire home from flooding, show the difference that the right equipment makes when water actually arrives.
Raising awareness is part of the job
Appearances like the Rip Off Britain piece matter because too many people only think about flood risk after they have been flooded. By that point the cost (financial, practical, and emotional) is already significant, and the choices available are far narrower than they would have been beforehand.
If a national television appearance prompts even a small number of households or organisations to check their risk, plan their response, and put the right defences in place, that is time well spent.
Get in touch
If you would like advice on flood risk at your property, business or site, or you would like to discuss flood defence equipment, consultancy or training, our team is here to help. Get in touch to arrange an initial conversation.