Fitting a £1,000 package of flood resilience measures to new homes as they are built could save up to £60 million over ten years for the homes built in any single year, according to new Aviva analysis, in a market where homes built after January 1, 2009 fall outside Flood Re.
Aviva released the figures for Flood Action Week and is calling for new homes on land at risk of flooding to be built to a new flood resilience standard. The insurer modelled surface water flood risk for the new homes built in at-risk areas over the last three years, using an average flood claim of £32,000, the likelihood of a flood occurring and a typical 8% fall in value for homes at long-term flood risk. It compared a standard home with one built with a £1,000 package of resilience measures.
Aviva found resilience as standard would save about £7 million on average in avoided claims and lost value for the homes built in any given year. That works out at more than £300 a year for each new build, so the cost of the measures is paid back in just over three years. Savings would reach £32.7 million by year five and £60.2 million by year ten, and Aviva says the avoided costs are likely to increase over time.
Independent data suggest homes at risk of flooding typically lose 8% of their market value, rising to 32% depending on the severity of the risk.
Aviva said the human cost matters as much as the financial one. Homeowners forced out by a flood spend an average of nine months away while their property is dried out and repaired. Aviva’s survey of 2,000 consumers, including 500 owners of homes less than five years old, found residents expect to be out for 2.79 months, almost three. A third of residents (34%) believe their home is at risk of flooding.
Jason Storah, chief executive of UK and Ireland general insurance at Aviva, said that at best a move out is disruptive, but it can also be deeply upsetting. He said resilience from the outset could let families return much sooner, or avoid leaving at all.
The survey found 55% of residents would pay an extra £1,000 on the price of a new home to include flood resilience measures, rising to 74% among owners of homes built in the last five years. Nearly three in four (73%) agreed new homes should be built resiliently.
Aviva says one in nine new homes built in the last three years are in medium or high flood risk areas. Its February analysis put the figure at 11% of new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024, or 43,937 of 396,602. Aviva said if that trend continued, 115,000 of the government’s planned 1.5 million new homes would sit in the highest-risk flood zones.
Those homes have no access to Flood Re, the joint government and industry scheme that keeps flood cover affordable for eligible homes. The scheme deliberately excludes properties built after January 1, 2009, to avoid encouraging building in flood risk areas, and it is due to end in 2039. That leaves post-2009 homes in flood-prone areas dependent on the open market, where resilience measures are among the few levers that can change the flood risk an insurer is pricing.
Aviva has called for a presumption against new development in high-risk areas in planning rules, alongside mandatory flood resilience measures in building regulations for new homes in at-risk areas. Storah said planning and building regulations need to change in line with the climate.
Aviva has said effective measures such as one-way valves on toilets, air brick covers and flood gates can be installed for less than £1,000. Earlier this year it introduced the Resilico Connect app to home insurance customers whose homes have been identified as high flood risk, giving them flood alerts and practical advice for protecting homes and possessions.
The insurer has offered Build Back Better since July 2023, providing up to £10,000 of additional property flood resilience measures for any customer with a flood claim over £25,000. Almost 500 customers have been supported through it so far.
