The Flood Innovation Centre is urging farmers, landowners and other rural businesses to book a free flood survey and take advantage of the follow-up support on offer as the project enters its final few months.
Project Manager Anton James said: “We’re funded to help eligible farmers, landowners and other rural businesses to make their land, property, livestock and other assets more resilient to flooding. As well as offering free flood surveys and follow-up support to help them understand and act upon the findings, we run a variety of free workshops, covering everything from natural flood management to what’s known as property flood resilience. That’s the term used to describe measures that reduce the risk of flood damage to properties, speed up the recovery process and enable people to get back into their properties quicker after flooding.”
Chun Keat Yew, also Project Manager, said: “We received £1.9 million of funding from the European Regional Development Fund, but the very nature of this funding means that we’re nearing the end of the project and the free support on offer to eligible businesses will only be available for a few more months. That’s why it’s so important that rural business owners who want to ensure that their land, premises, employees, livestock and other assets are protected against the risk of flooding make contact with our team to get their free flood survey booked in and learn about the additional support we can provide to help them act on the findings of their survey. The climate crisis means that the need to take action to mitigate and adapt to flood events has never been so vital.”
The Flood Innovation Centre was established by the University of Hull to help boost resilience in communities affected by flooding and champion examples of flood innovation, such as ground-breaking products, services and solutions. It’s funded to provide support to eligible businesses in a number of local authority areas across the UK, including parts of Yorkshire, Cumbria, Shropshire, Lancashire, the North East, Staffordshire, Devon and Merseyside.
Anton added: “We have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in flood resilience and flood innovation here at the Flood Innovation Centre, and members of our friendly team can develop bespoke support packages tailored to the needs of each individual business that we work with. However, time is running out so rural businesses need to get in touch as soon as possible or risk missing out on the free support that’s available to them.”
Communities across England face a variety of different types of flood risk, and climate change, coupled with increasing urbanisation, means that flood events are happening more frequently. The Environment Agency estimates that the average cost of damage suffered by businesses during a flood event is around £82,000. As many as 40 per cent of businesses never reopen after being flooded, and a further 25 per cent of businesses that do reopen go on to fail within a year.
Thankfully, by taking a few simple steps, farms and other rural businesses can give themselves a fighting chance of surviving future flooding events. For example, every £1 spent on property flood resilience measures can save them around £5 in flood damage.
Farmers, landowners and other rural business owners who are concerned about flooding and its potential impact on their activities, but don’t know where to start, are urged to contact the Flood Innovation Centre by telephoning 01482 462275, emailing flic@hull.ac.uk or completing an online registration form at www.floodinnovation.co.uk/register.