England's Environment Agency has launched Flood Action Online, a single website where people can check whether their home is at risk of flooding, sign up for flood warnings, see Met Office weather alerts during an incident and find practical ways to make their property more resilient. The launch marks the start of the agency's annual Flood Action Week.
The government has also set a new target: 200,000 properties to be better protected by its £4.2 billion programme to repair, replace and build flood defences between April 2026 and March 2029. It says this would avoid £27.9 billion of damage. In its first two years it spent £2.65 billion and better protected almost 62,000 properties, above the target of 52,000, and the share of defences in their required condition rose to 93 percent by the end of March 2026, with a goal of 93.5 percent by March 2029.
A new Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce meets for the first time this week. The government notes that droughts and floods can now occur at the same time, and that weather can switch quickly from one extreme to the other.
"Climate change means that extreme weather can switch quickly, but we're more prepared than ever before for the challenges posed by floods," said Floods Minister Emma Hardy, who urged everyone to check their flood risk, prepare a flood plan and follow warnings.
Caroline Douglass, the Environment Agency's executive director for floods, said teams were ready to respond around the clock this winter. The agency keeps 260 mobile pumps, 17 of them ultra-high-volume, and 25 kilometres of temporary barriers ready to deploy, with 600 people on call at any time and free flood warnings for the public.
Floods hit farmland as well as homes, and the same advice applies on a farm: know the risk to fields, stock and stores, have a plan and act on warnings.
Photo: Phil Dolby / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Global Agriculture
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