UK STATUS10 hosepipe bans in force·Reservoirs 56.1%·10 areas in drought·NRR: power outage rated catastrophicChecked 25 Sep 2026
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Weekly · from our own readers

What Britain is preparing for

What PreparedBritain's readers read, and which kit they clicked through to, week by week. It shows what people do after a headline: whether they check it, and what they reach for. Shares and percentage changes only.

Week of 18 September to 24 September 2026

Checking the headlines was the most-read topic, with 58% of reading. Emergency radios were 26% of all clicks through to retailers.

+1,248%
page views, against a usual week
+1,118%
clicks through to retailers
more than 200 times
the usual week's email sign-ups

"A usual week" is the weekly average of 21 August to 17 September 2026. We're a young site, so part of any rise is our own growth; the shares below are the fairer comparison.

What people read

Each topic's share of this week's page views, against its share in a usual week.

Checking the headlines57.5%
our fact-checks of viral claimsusual 0%
Power cuts and backup power12.1%
torches, radios, power banks and stations, generators, power-cut guides and the live trackerusual 25.6%
Emergency kits and plans12%
kit lists, grab bags, kit builders and household plansusual 18.7%
Food and cooking7.6%
emergency food, cooking without power and growing your ownusual 12.5%
Water6.8%
storing and purifying water, hosepipe bans and droughtusual 18.5%
Storms, floods and weather1.3%
storms, flood risk, warnings and the weather trackersusual 12.1%
Home safety and scams1.2%
first aid, alarms, locks, safes and scam guidesusual 6.6%
Fuel, bills and money0.9%
fuel prices, energy bills and support schemesusual 2%
Heating, cooling and the home0.6%
keeping warm, cooling, damp and air qualityusual 4%

What they reached for

Kit categories as a share of all clicks through to retailers this week. Clicks, not sales: we don't see what anyone bought.

26.3%
Emergency radios
20.7%
Water storage
10.4%
Light & comms
8%
Emergency food
3.9%
Kit bags
3.9%
Power banks

Most-read pages

Share of the week's page views, and the change against a usual week ("new" if it was published during the week or the usual week is too small to compare).

  1. 1.Is the UK government telling people to stockpile food and water?45.8% · new
  2. 2.Best emergency radios for power cuts (2026)4.6% · +685%
  3. 3.The emergency kit builder4.3% · +1,960%
  4. 4.How much emergency food should you store? A per-person guide3.4% · +1,550%
  5. 5.The UK Emergency Kit List, explained item by item3.1% · +721%
  6. 6.Best water storage & purification for emergencies (2026)2.5% · +541%
  7. 7.Is the UK setting up a civilian ‘war register’?1.8% · new
  8. 8.Best emergency torches & wind-up radios (2026)1.8% · +1,096%

How we measure it

  • Page views and clicks through to retailers on preparedbritain.co.uk, from our cookie-free site analytics, for the seven days to the date shown, against the weekly average of the four weeks before.
  • Our readers are the people who searched for, or were sent to, a preparedness site. They aren't a sample of the country, so read this as what interested people did, not what everyone thinks.
  • Topics group pages by subject; the homepage, hub pages and site pages are left out of the shares (the grouped pages were 89% of all views).
  • We publish percentages only, never visitor, click or sign-up counts.

Journalists: the figures are free to use with credit to PreparedBritain. For anything more, see our press page or email hello@preparedbritain.co.uk.

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