Why is Flood Action Week important?

Around 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are in areas at risk of flooding. Taking action to prepare and knowing what to do in a flood can significantly reduce risk to life, damage to property and the suffering from mental health impacts in the future.

Our climate is changing, sea levels are rising, and we are continuing to see more extreme weather. Climate records continue to be broken across the country and worldwide, with the summer of 2026 provisionally being the UK's hottest on record. This was a dramatic shift from winter 2025/26, where England received significant rainfall of 42% above the average amount.

El Niño is now firmly established this year and has already exceeded previous records. The strong El Niño doesn’t mean increased flooding is guaranteed, but it does mean that the odds of the UK seeing repeated storm systems, prolonged rainfall, saturated catchments and consequential flooding are higher than average.

The cost of flooding to a home can be tens of thousands of pounds. Devastatingly, flooding also brings a significant risk to life, damage to homes, businesses and communities, and can impact people’s mental health.

Flood Action Online website

As part of Flood Action Week, the Environment Agency are launching a new website called Flood Action Online. The new website will be hosted on GOV.UK and will act as a ‘one stop shop’, providing the public with the information they need to better understand their flood risk and prepare for flooding in one place.

The new website will support individuals, businesses and communities become more resilient to flooding, converting awareness into action by:

• Connecting people to existing services and flood information on GOV.UK, helping them navigate the information more easily and efficiently 
• Improving access to trusted government services and advice
• Promoting practical actions that increase preparedness and resilience  
• Encouraging uptake of measures that can reduce the impacts of flooding on people, places and the economy