8 Million Homes In England At Risk From Flooding; Entire Neighborhoods And Towns May Be Abandoned As Uninsurable
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New analysis from the insurance industry, seen by the Guardian, reveals the extent of concern in the sector, with bosses warning that large swathes of housing and commercial property in densely populated areas will be at greater risk. Separately, experts have said that some towns may need to be abandoned as homes and businesses struggle to get insurance in areas repeatedly battered by storms and rising sea levels. Densely populated areas including London, Manchester and parts of north-east England, are likely to be worst hit. Experts also say London’s flood defences need to be updated urgently to protect the capital from devastating floods. “The findings are stark,” said Jason Storah, chief executive for UK & Ireland general insurance at Aviva, which published the analysis. “Millions more properties will be at risk from flooding, with rising temperatures, increased urbanisation and inadequate drainage.”
Tenbury Wells, a market town in Worcestershire, has become the first in the country to find that its public buildings are uninsurable. The town has historically suffered damaging floods about once a decade, but in the past six years people there have been hit four times. “We do feel abandoned,” said Lesley Davies, the deputy mayor of Tenbury council. “We are the blueprint for what could happen in the future – there may be other towns getting towards that situation, there are a lot of vulnerable towns on rivers all over.”
Aviva’s report highlights growing concern within the insurance industry about the impact of severe weather events that are being driven by the climate crisis. Storah said: “We are not talking about this because we are waving a flag about climate or sustainability – it’s nothing to do with that, our business is totally correlated with what happens in the environment … we are in this and we cannot avoid it.”
Aviva analysed every parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales to assess how vulnerable they were to flooding. In England, it found the number of properties at risk from flooding was expected to increase by more than a quarter (27%), from 6.3 million to 8 million, with the number of properties in high-risk areas for flash flooding – which are harder to predict and protect against – likely to increase by up to 66% by mid-century.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/14/millions-more-homes-in-great-britain-at-risk-of-flooding-investigation-finds
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/14/millions-more-homes-in-great-britain-at-risk-of-flooding-investigation-finds