With all the floods there have been in the last few years, and with growing concern about rising water levels, this is something that everybody should be checking.
There is plenty of information online – if you put ‘UK flood risk area’ in a search engine you will see this – but you should start with a reliable source as a lot of sites are from people trying to sell you insurance or flood protection equipment (you may well need both, of course, but the first thing is to establish your level of risk).
The best place to look for information about your area is the Environment Agency website – if you type in “environment agency flood” you will get to the right page. There you can view a map and click on it to pinpoint your area anywhere in the UK. You may get a message saying that there is no data for your area, though - in which case you can also try the results of the flood risk assessments that have been recently carried out. If you click here and scroll down the page, you can find flood risk maps for England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate, so if you live in one of these you should go back the Agency’s main page and put your area in the search box; Northern Ireland Information is also available through the NI Rivers Agency).
Looking at the map for England, for example, you can see that some of the highest risk areas are London and the Midlands. For more detailed information you can explore the site to find assessments based on your nearest river (if you’re not sure what this is, there is a map next to the list of rivers showing all the major ones). On the main page you can also look up information such as whether there are any flood warnings in place for your area right now; what to do to prepare for a flood; and also what to do if you have been flooded, including how to deal with your insurance company.
Another way to use the Environment Agency information is to type in ‘flood risk area’ plus the name of your nearest town in a search engine. If you then look through the links that come up (it may not be the first – when I tried it it was quite a long way down) you should get to the agency’s local information for your area including links to local councils where you can find out more. Here you can also find out what precautions your local council is taking to prevent flooding or help residents deal with floods. A lot of work is being done right now so the information is likely to be updated quite often.
You can also try one of the many online companies that offer to give you a flood risk assessment if you type in your postcode. However, most of these will either charge you for a detailed assessment or try to sell you insurance, so it would be advisable to double check any information you get.
If your searches do suggest that you live in a high risk area, you may wish to contact your local council and ask for advice on the best way to ensure your safety and to confirm any risk assessments you may have seen. It is also worth checking your home insurance policy to see what it says about floods.
Hopefully you will turn out to be in a safe area, but it’s always best to know.