Flood Re, along with mobile demonstration home Floodmobile, is on a week-long tour of flood-prone cities across the UK to raise awareness on various resilience measures homeowners and businesses can take to protect against flooding.
The tour has stops in Worcester, York, Hull, and Carlisle, before arriving at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow on Friday, October 29. At each stop, the insurer will demonstrate the different property flood resilience (PFR) features installed in the Floodmobile.
“At COP26 there will, quite rightly, be a focus on the efforts of nations to reach net zero carbon emissions, but there is an urgent need right now for homes, businesses and governments to adapt to the climate – including the installation of PFR measures,” said Andy Bord (pictured), chief executive officer of Flood Re.
“The Floodmobile contains 50 great examples of effective, practical and easy-to-install measures, which businesses and homeowners can implement now,” he added. “This will significantly improve the resilience of their buildings to the inevitable increased risk of flood we will face in the coming years as a result of global warming.”
Among the PFR measures installed in the Floodmobile are waterproof plaster, door valves, wall membrane systems with sump pumps, flooring, wall coverings, skirting boards, self-closing air bricks, periscope covers, and recoverable kitchens.
Kelly Ostler-Coyle, head of communications at Flood Re, will represent the firm on the tour. She will be accompanied by Mary Dhonau, also known as popular flood resilience campaigner Flood Mary.
“This month marks 21 years since I was flooded and started to campaign to raise awareness of flood risk,” she said. “Since then, due to climate change, I have watched flooding become more devastating as the years go by, with people forced out of their homes for months on end.
“The Floodmobile demonstrates just what can be done at a property level to reduce the awful impact a flood can have. I honestly believe that adaptation against flooding should be on the top of everyone’s agenda and it is time and money well spent.”
In addition to the tour, Flood Re has developed a Build Back Better (BBB) scheme, which will be available through some insurers after April 2022. The product is designed to reduce the cost and impact of future floods by improving the roll-out and access to property resilience measures.
