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What have the Romans ever done for us? Aside from the drainage, obviously

Ask a Roman what they ever did for us and you would probably get a shrug and a wave at, well, everything. Put the same question to a flood-risk engineer, though, and the answer turns oddly specific: a startling amount…
Posted on 11th August, 2026
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Skinningrove Flood Alleviation Scheme: £13m Defences Begin in 2026

Construction has started on the Skinningrove flood alleviation scheme, a £13 million Environment Agency project, delivered with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, that will protect more than 100 homes in the coastal village by 2028. At its heart is a…
Posted on 10th August, 2026
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Shoreline Management Plans Explained: Hold the Line, Managed Realignment and No Active Intervention

England's coast runs to roughly 6,000km, and nearly all of it is covered by a shoreline management plan: the document that decides whether a stretch of shoreline gets defended, left alone, or allowed to move. A shoreline management plan (SMP)…
Posted on 27th July, 2026
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Erosion of trust: the government’s own words versus its coastal erosion grant

There is no coastal erosion compensation in the UK. If the sea takes your home, there is no insurance payout and no statutory compensation for the land or the building. Until 15 July 2026 there was a demolition grant that…
Posted on 24th July, 2026
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Romsey Flood Alleviation Scheme: How New Defences Are Reducing Flood Risk in 2026

The Romsey flood alleviation scheme has just been strengthened again. In May 2026 the Environment Agency finished raising Stockbridge Road near Timsbury by around 40 centimetres and rebuilt the flood defence at a nearby weed-recovery compound: the latest step in…
Posted on 6th July, 2026
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Why the Somerset Levels flood — and what £50m will (and won’t) fix

The Somerset Levels flood because they are a low-lying former wetland, much of which sits at or below the level of the rivers and tides meant to drain it. In a wet winter, water arrives faster than the catchment can…
Posted on 17th June, 2026
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Leaky Dams and Flood Risk: What They Do, Where They Work, and What They Can’t Fix

Anyone who has watched the latest series of Clarkson's Farm will have seen Jeremy Clarkson wading into a stream at Diddly Squat to build what he gleefully describes, after a bit of reading on the government's website, as "large, leaky,…
Posted on 13th June, 2026
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Residual Flood Risk Explained: How It’s Assessed and Managed

Residual flood risk is the risk left over after defences, drainage and mitigation have done what they can. No scheme removes risk entirely. A defended site still floods if a barrier is overtopped, if a defence breaches, or if a…
Posted on 9th June, 2026
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Can You Build a House on Stilts in a Flood Zone? Floodable Voids Explained

Yes, you can build a house on stilts in a flood zone in England, and a floodable void is the engineering that lets you do it. A floodable void is an open space beneath a building that floodwater flows into,…
Posted on 4th June, 2026
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Property Flood Resilience and Planning: The 2025 FloodReady Action Plan, the CIRIA Code and Build Back Better

Property flood resilience (PFR) has moved from the margins of flood policy towards the centre of it. The 2025 FloodReady action plan, the maturing CIRIA Code of Practice, and insurance-side schemes like Build Back Better have made the idea of…
Posted on 14th May, 2026
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Fens 2100+ explained: what the Environment Agency’s evidence actually says

Fens 2100+ is the Environment Agency's long-term flood risk and water management programme for the Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire Fens, run in partnership with Internal Drainage Boards, local authorities and water companies. In April 2026 it published a summary baseline report,…
Posted on 28th April, 2026
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£1.4bn Flood Defence Funding 2026/27 Explained

The UK government has announced £1.4 billion of flood defence funding for 2026 / 27, supporting more than 600 schemes across England, as set out in the official £1.4bn flood investment announcement. The funding is intended to reduce flood risk…
Posted on 18th March, 2026
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New CIRIA guidance encourages communities to help maintain local flood defences

New guidance published by CIRIA is encouraging communities to play a more active role in maintaining local flood risk assets, including drainage channels, culverts and smaller flood defence structures. The guidance forms a three-part suite (C821) aimed at supporting community…
Posted on 6th March, 2026
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Flood Funding Reform 2026: The New FCERM Guidance Explained

Defra has published new guidance governing how flood and coastal erosion schemes in England will be funded and prioritised from 2026 onwards. This is not a minor procedural update. It reshapes how projects are classified, how funding levels are calculated,…
Posted on 3rd March, 2026
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Wales’ £85m Flood Investment Explained

The Welsh Government has announced £85 million of funding for flood and coastal erosion risk management in Wales for 2026 – 27, describing it as the highest annual allocation ever delivered. The headline figure is significant. It builds on more…
Posted on 27th February, 2026
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Acqua alta: how Venice lives with flooding, and what the UK takes from it

Acqua alta is the tidal flooding that covers parts of Venice several dozen times a year, and the city stays open through almost all of it. The reason is not the barrier at the lagoon mouth. It is that the…
Posted on 23rd February, 2026
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Does the Jubilee River Increase Downstream Flood Risk?

The Jubilee River is an 11.6 kilometre flood relief channel on the River Thames, opened in 2002 to lower flood levels in Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton. Because it moves a large volume of water from one part of the river…
Posted on 12th February, 2026
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River Thames Scheme delays raise questions over flood defence delivery

Recent political intervention and growing local frustration over the River Thames Scheme have brought long-running questions about flood defence delivery sharply back into focus. What began as a technically ambitious response to well-understood flood risk is increasingly becoming a case…
Posted on 9th February, 2026
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Fowlea Brook flood scheme: what £12.6m has changed in Stoke-on-Trent

The Fowlea Brook flood scheme is a £12.6 million Environment Agency project, completed in February 2026, that has rebuilt the defences along a constrained urban watercourse running through the centre of Stoke-on-Trent. It reduces flood risk to 333 homes and…
Posted on 6th February, 2026
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Managed retreat from flood risk at Clydach Terrace

Sixteen flood-prone homes on Clydach Terrace in Ynysybwl, Rhondda Cynon Taf, are set to be purchased and demolished by the local authority, bringing an end to years of repeated flooding, fear and uncertainty for the people who live there. Publicly,…
Posted on 3rd February, 2026
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Guildford Flood Alleviation Scheme: flood risk, defences and what happens next

The Guildford Flood Alleviation Scheme is a long-term project by the Environment Agency, Guildford Borough Council and Surrey County Council to reduce flood risk to Guildford town centre from the River Wey. It proposes more than two kilometres of new…
Posted on 14th January, 2026
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Below Standard Flood Defences: Protected on Paper, Vulnerable in Practice

Flood defence condition is measured against a target, not against whether a wall is still standing. On 1 April 2026 the Environment Agency reported that 93% of its flood risk assets in high consequence systems were in the required condition,…
Posted on 24th December, 2025
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Flood Resilience in England: A Wake-Up Call

Flooding in England is no longer a localised hazard — it is a national systems challenge. The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s latest report, Flood Resilience in England (HC 550, October 2025), delivers a blunt assessment: the country remains…
Posted on 29th October, 2025
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How to Drive Through Flood Water

Knowing how to drive through flood water safely comes down to one rule above all others: if you can avoid it, don't drive through it at all. The Environment Agency advises drivers not to enter water that is moving or…
Posted on 28th October, 2025
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Defra Confirms £10.5bn Flood Defence Funding Overhaul

In April, Defra’s consultation proposing a major overhaul of England’s flood funding system was launched, aiming to simplify access to investment and accelerate protection for communities most at risk. That consultation has now concluded, and the government has confirmed that…
Posted on 14th October, 2025
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Flood Defence Gets £7.9bn Investment in UK Infrastructure Push

The UK Government has unveiled the largest flood defence investment programme in the nation’s history, committing £7.9 billion over the next decade to better protect homes, businesses and critical infrastructure from rising climate-driven flood risks. This announcement comes amid growing public…
Posted on 19th June, 2025
, in NPPF 
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Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme (OFAS) Approved

The Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme (OFAS) is a £176 million flood defence project, led by the Environment Agency, that will reduce flood risk to more than 1,600 homes and businesses across Oxford and the surrounding villages. At its heart is…
Posted on 16th May, 2025
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Thames Barrier: London’s Flood Defence Against Tidal Surges

The Thames Barrier is the largest movable flood barrier protecting London, holding back the tidal surges that would otherwise push up the estuary and into the heart of the city. It spans 520 metres of the River Thames near Woolwich…
Posted on 14th February, 2025
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Flood Risk and the UK Housing Market: A Slow-Building Financial Threat

Rising flood risk is a long-term threat to the UK housing market, to the mortgages secured against it, and to the wider financial system. For now, most households at risk are shielded by Flood Re, the industry scheme that keeps…
Posted on 29th January, 2025
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The Great Flood of 1968: causes, the towns it hit, and the risk today

In the middle of September 1968, much of South East England disappeared under water. Two days of near-constant rain, the worst of it on Sunday 15 September, turned quiet rivers into torrents and turned high streets into channels you could…
Posted on 14th September, 2023
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Cleaning Up After a Flood: A UK Step-by-Step Recovery Guide

Posted on 23rd August, 2019
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How to avoid a Summer Festival Flood

There's no Glastonbury this year. Worthy Farm is taking its fallow year, and part of the reason is the ground itself: it needs a season without 200,000 pairs of wellies compacting it. The rest of 2026 is very much on,…
Posted on 22nd June, 2017
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Are Amphibious houses the answer to flood prone areas?

An amphibious house rests on ordinary foundations for most of its life. When floodwater arrives, the building rises within a purpose-built dock and floats, held in place by vertical guide posts. As the water recedes, it settles back down. The…
Posted on 1st March, 2017
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How to protect your home from flooding: a UK homeowner’s guide

You cannot stop a river rising or a storm drain backing up. What you can decide is how much of that water reaches your rooms, and how much it costs you when it does. Knowing how to protect your home…
Posted on 25th September, 2015
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