Autumn seasonal risk guidance

With Flood Action Week fast approaching, now is an ideal time for businesses to consider their flood risk preparedness.

Flooding remains one of the most significant risks facing UK businesses, with damage caused by rivers, coastal flooding, surface water, drainage systems, groundwater or overwhelmed sewer systems.

With around 6.3 million properties¹ in England in areas at risk of flooding and an average flood claim cost of £99,426², the threat is widespread.

By helping your clients to understand their flood risk and put practical resilience measures in place, you can help minimise damage, reduce disruption and support a faster recovery when severe weather strikes.

Super El Niño – be prepared, not panicked

You may have seen headlines about a potential "Super El Niño" and the threat of more extreme weather. While the exact impact on the UK remains uncertain, forecasters suggest it could increase the likelihood of wetter, more unsettled conditions, including heavier rainfall, stronger winds and a heightened flood risk.

For businesses, this weather warning serves as an ideal opportunity to review their risk management practices for severe weather.

Key considerations for businesses should include resilience of buildings and drainage systems, protection of stock and critical records, emergency response arrangements and recovery plans should disruption occur.

For homeowners, it’s good to be aware of what to do when there’s a flood warning. Practical tips such as moving valuable or electrical household items to a safe location can help to reduce the impact should flooding occur.

For brokers, it provides a valuable reason to revisit conversations around flood risk, business continuity and recovery planning.

While no-one can control the weather, supporting your customers with proactive planning can help to reduce its impact. Regardless of its outcome, this El Niño highlights the importance of resilience, preparation and having the right protection in place.
 

Our range of Loss Prevention Standards (LPS)

The impact of flooding can extend far beyond buildings and contents, disrupting operations, affecting customers and resulting in costly downtime.

Our Loss Prevention Standards offer practical advice and guidance to help your clients stay ahead of flood risks this autumn.

• Flood – Emergency Response Plan
• Flood Guidance And Mitigation Global
• Tree Management – Property
• Flood Guidance And Mitigation – UK
• Weather Related Property Damage
• Wind And Windstorm
   

Insights from the National Flood School

We’re continuously strengthening our expertise, most recently through the acquisition of the National Flood School, part of the Disaster Care group. At the specialist training facility, claims teams and brokers can experience realistic flood scenarios and gain first-hand insight into the impact of water damage, restoration techniques and flood resilience measures.

Read the full article here.
 

Webinars available on demand

Our on-demand webinar recordings can help support conversations with your clients about flood resilience and how we can work together to achieve better outcomes for customers.

• Flooding & Flood Re: Build Back Better webinar - Hear directly from Flood Re about how they operate, and their Build Back Better scheme, as well as our Claims Sustainability Lead on Aviva’s approach to Build Back Better.
• Managing personal lines subsidence claims in a changing climate - After a prolonged dry summer and early autumn, it could be subsidence that causes issues for your personal lines clients. Joined by Innovation Group, experts in subsidence claims, this insightful session explores the causes and impact of subsidence, the key stages of a claim, emerging trends and what they could mean for you and your customers.

Our commercial flood-focused Specialist Partners

• Apex Flood Solutions - Flood Protection Services: Apex Flood Solutions offers flood mitigation measures to protect the assets of both commercial and residential customers. Services and products include design and specification, installation and flood related products.
  
• Ashfield Solutions - Flood Risk Management: Ashfield Solutions provides practical flood risk services tailored to businesses and commercial properties. Services include flood risk assessments, property surveys, resilience and mitigation strategies and emergency planning.
• JBA Consulting - Flood Risk Assessments: JBA Consulting provide Flood Risk Assessments (FRAs) for insurance purposes, including an on-site hazard assessment survey and a bespoke report which provides a detailed review of the sources of flood risk and options to mitigate this risk.

Broker Create - personalised resources for your clients

Broker Create gives you access to a range of autumn risk management assets, including flood-specific guidance and LinkedIn carousels which you can easily personalise with your logo and contact details before sharing with your clients.
 

_{1 Environment Agency, National Flood Risk Assessment in England 2024, updated Aug 2026}

_{2 Aviva Claims Data, 2023-2025}

_{Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.}