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Bonfield FloodReady 2025 Property Flood Resilience Review
Attending the Launch of the Bonfield FloodReady 2025 Review
As Part of Flood Action Week, Yesterday, the 16th October 2025, Simon Crowther from FPS Environmental Ltd attended the launch of the Bonfield FloodReady Review, an independent report led by Professor Peter Bonfield OBE FREng and commissioned by the Environment Agency. The review sets out an ambitious ten-year plan to strengthen the UK’s approach to Property Flood Resilience (PFR) and make resilience a normal part of how we build, buy, and protect our homes.
As a member of the DEFRA PFR Roundtable and founding member of IPFRA, Simon was invited to attend the event alongside representatives from government, insurers, lenders, and engineers. It is brilliant to see so many sectors coming together with a shared commitment: to make homes and communities ready for the challenges ahead.
Guests heard from Professor Peter Bonfield OBE FREng, Julie Foley OBE, Emma Hardy MP, Ian Gibbs, and a representative of UK Finance.
The review builds on the 2016 PFR Action Plan and identifies six key themes:
- Growing a coherent and trusted market for PFR products and professionals.
- Ensuring certified, accessible, and consumer-protected solutions.
- Making flood resilience information consistent and easy to find.
- Encouraging measures to reduce surface water runoff such as permeable paving and rain gardens.
- Strengthening regulatory frameworks so that resilience becomes part of planning and building regulations.
- Supporting research and innovation to drive new standards and technologies.
Flooding is one of the UK’s fastest-growing risks. Environment Agency data shows that 6.3 million properties in England are currently at risk of flooding, which will rise to 8 million in just 25 years. The impact of flooding is not just financial loss, floods cause immense emotional strain. For many families, recovery takes years.
Research from Flood Re and JBA Risk Management shows just how big the opportunity, and need is for Property Flood Resilience. Nearly 22 million homes (about three-quarters of all housing in the UK), are suitable for some form of PFR based on their build and layout. Of these, 3.1 million homes are at flood depths where measures are proven to work, with 2.6 million homes facing shallow flooding (under 30 cm), where simple solutions like airbrick covers and flood barriers can and do make a huge difference.
The review introduces a new Leadership Group, bringing together government, insurers, builders, lenders, and professional bodies, to ensure the recommendations are delivered. It’s also encouraging to see discussions around Flood Performance Certificates (FPCs), which could one day help property owners and insurers assess resilience in the same way that EPCs rate energy performance, and thereby significant increase awareness of flood risk, as well as how it can be better managed. For many properties, recoverability will be key, and enabling us to work well with water, bounce back quickly, and not require significant insurance claims or disruption to lives.
With climate change increasing the intensity and frequency of flooding, the UK must consider flood risk in everyday life (not just when it rains), just as we do insulation or fire safety.
This review provides the roadmap to make that happen, and we are proud to play a part in helping drive resilience forward.
