75% of Scots fail to check flood risk of their homes

Despite increased incidents of flooding in recent years, new YouGov research indicated a lack of awareness over flood planning and responsibility in the event of floods, despite 1 in 6 homes throughout the UK being considered at risk.

The YouGov survey, commissioned by the Know Your Flood Risk campaign, revealed that overall in Britain, 67% of respondents had never checked the flood risk level of their home, while only 20% of people check flood risks before moving into a new home.

League table of flood risk regions where people have failed to check flood risk:

1. North East 88%

2. North West 77%

3. Scotland 75%

4. West Midlands 71%

5. London 70%

6. Yorks and Humber 69%

7. South West 61%

8. East of England 57%

9. East Midlands 57%

10. South East 55%

The survey also shows that many do not take the threat of a flood seriously with just 6% of respondents confirming that they have a flood plan and are sure of what they would do if a flood occurred in their homes.

Worryingly, a third of people (31%) reported that they do not have a plan and would not know what to do in the event of a flood.

The survey identifies that the public are still not making flood checks part of their research process when moving into a new home; just 20% of respondents currently check the flood risk of their home before moving in, and only 11% check after.

You can find the flood zones and risk level for your home on this Environment Agency map online at environment-agency.gov.uk.

The research went on to identify that there is confusion over who is responsible for protecting a home against flooding.

Respondents considered a range of organisations that they believe have a responsibility to protect homes against flooding including the Environment Agency (57%), their local council (55%) and the Government (34%). Homeowners (55%), landlords (39%) and tenants (23%) were also noted as being responsible for protecting a home against flooding.

Mary Dhonau OBE, chief executive of the Know Your Flood Risk campaign, said: “People have short memories, just three years ago in 2014 we had the second wettest summer on record and during the summer of 2007, 55,000 properties were flooded.

“With such wide-scale media coverage of the devastation that significant flood events cause, it’s surprising that that the public are not doing their homework when it comes to protecting their homes.

“With so many floods in recent times combined with flood insurance problems, it’s worrying that so few people check their flood risk before they buy.

“It is also interesting to see the level of confusion over who should protect homes from being flooded. It is clear that there is still a need to educate homeowners of their responsibility and to ensure they know where to go to find this information.”

The Know Your Flood Risk Campaign’s mission is to raise awareness of the risk of flooding from all sources.

It is one of the UK’s leading online sources for helping people find out the flood risk related to their current or future homes.

A Know Your Flood Risk Report can be purchased which assesses the potential risk and confirms whether they will be able to obtain insurance at standard terms.

The Know Your Flood Risk campaign also provides comprehensive guidance via its website and a free mobile app, which offers information about flood forecasts and warnings, example flood plans, details of how to protect against floods or how to recover if affected by a flood.

For more information, visit www.knowyourfloodrisk.co.uk, or follow the campaign on Twitter or via Facebook.