Making a flood plan for your business if you are in an area at risk of flooding makes good business sense. The damage caused by floods is significant and can have an enormous impact on your business. More businesses than ever are at risk of flooding due to climate change.
Flood damage to business properties
If you have ever flooded a bathroom or experienced even minor flooding at home, you will have a small idea of how much damage water can inflict on a building, how long it takes to clean up debris, dry out ceilings, walls and floors, and how much it costs to repair the damage.
Environmental flooding is much worse. Flood water can carry sewage and rubbish into your property. Disinfecting and drying out a property can take weeks and months, or up to a year (Association of British Insurers, Responding to Floods Guide PDF).
The cost of damage repairs is high. Property insurers paid out £573 million last year for weather-related damages, an increase of 36% and over £1.5 million per day (ABI).
If your business property is affected, you cannot continue to operate until the waters subside and the property is restored to a usable state. While you wait, you cannot bring in revenue to cover wages, utilities, suppliers and replacement goods & materials. This can be catastrophic for a business that does not have a business continuity plan.
40% of small businesses that suffer a flood shut down and never reopen (Flood Mary Flood Handbook PDF/Business In The Community Leaflet) and 75% of businesses do not have a flood plan or business continuity plan (Aviva).
Flooding in the UK
In 2000, The Environment Agency estimated that 185,000 commercial properties were at risk of flooding, as well as 1.85 million homes and 5 million people (Environment Agency, 2000). This estimate predates the 2007 floods which are one of the five worst floods in modern history in the UK (Sky).
This is forecast to increase due to climate change. Fathom has created a flood map that shows which areas of the UK are at greater risk of flooding over the next few decades (2020-2050). Some areas will be at 50% greater risk of flooding, including zones in London and on the UK coastline.
Fathom has also published a research paper and they have created a climate-conditioned catastrophe risk model for UK pluvial, fluvial and coastal flooding. They have modelled historic risk and periods from current risk up to 2070. The model shows that the forecasted increase in annual flood losses (i.e. damage to property and businesses) could be restricted to a maximum of ~4% if all countries meet net zero pledges in full.
“But Great Britain will only be able to avoid a major increase in climate change-related flood risk if all countries’ COP26 and net zero emission reduction pledges are met in full.”
Fathom research paper
Has your business been affected by flooding? The Westminster Sustainable Business Forum (WSBF) has made several recommendations to the UK government on ways to reduce flood risk and increase flood resilience in its third round of Bricks & Water (PDF) inquiries. Policy Connect and WSBF are currently calling for evidence for a future report.
What to do if your business is at risk of flooding
Is your business at risk of flooding? Put a flood plan in place and arrange a business continuity plan and insurance.
Watertight International are experts at flood planning for commercial and domestic applications. They will be speaking at our Coffee, Cake & Connect event in London on September 18th. Flood Mary (Mary Long-Dhonau OBE) has a helpful guide for what to do after a flood. Mary will also be speaking at the event from her personal experience of multiple floods.
The Met Office in collaboration with the Environment Agency/Scottish Environment Protection Agency provides the Flood Forecasting Centre (FFC) for England & Wales, the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service (SFFS) for Scotland and the UK Coastal Monitoring and Forecasting (UKCMF) service for coastal areas.
The Environment Agency has a variety of tools and resources to help businesses at risk of flooding, including A National Assessment of Flood Risk, Business Flood Plan Checklists, and an ‘Adapting your home or business to the risk of flooding’ resource section.
