The Flood Guide: your risk, your plan, the flood itself, the clean-up and the claim
For any UK household that has looked at a flood map and wondered what it would actually do. Five chapters follow the order of a flood: reading your nation’s risk map and signing up for warnings; what to write in a plan and move on a dry day; what each warning level asks and how to switch off gas, electricity and water safely; the clean-up and drying out; and how Flood Re, a claim and the recovery grants work. Each chapter has a checklist, a who-to-contact table and a note on when it is not for you. An A4 PDF to read on a phone or print.
- 72 A4 pages in 5 chapters: know your risk, your flood plan, during a flood, after a flood, and insurance, Flood Re and help.
- England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland side by side: each nation’s flood map and risk bands, warning service, emergency numbers, helplines and recovery grants, with a table showing why a ‘high’ in one nation is not a ‘high’ in another.
- Every instruction and figure traced to its publisher: the Environment Agency, SEPA, Natural Resources Wales, DfI Rivers, UKHSA, the Food Standards Agency, the ABI and the Financial Ombudsman among others, checked November 2026 and listed at the end of each chapter.
- Instant PDF download, yours to keep. Read it on any device, or print the checklists and contact tables to go in the waterproof box with your documents.
Secure card payment by Stripe. It downloads the moment you pay, so by buying you ask for it straight away and there’s no 14-day cancellation. Terms of sale.
For personal and household use. Buying for an organisation, tenants or staff? Ask about a licence.
Also in The Emergencies Pack, with 4 more handbooks and files: £29.99 for all 5.
When you would reach for it
The evening a flood alert arrives and the Environment Agency’s guidance says you have between 2 and 12 hours. The dry weekend when you finally check the map and want to know whether ‘medium’ means anything. The first morning after, when the water has gone and you need to know what to photograph before the first bin bag. And the week the loss adjuster is due, when the claims chapter sets out what alternative accommodation cover and a reasonable time usually mean.
What it does that a web search cannot
Each nation publishes its own map, its own bands, its own warning service and its own grants, and the pages rarely point to each other. This book puts them on one page: a Scottish ‘high’ is a 1-in-10 flood while England’s starts at 1 in 30, Northern Ireland has no flood-warning sign-up at all, and used sandbags go in different bins in different nations. Where official pages disagree, as they do on covering air bricks, it says so and tells you who to ask.
Written to be followed, not admired
Every chapter has a checklist, a who-to-contact table with the numbers and opening hours, and a ‘you may not need this’ note that says plainly when the chapter is not for you. The safety rules are repeated wherever you will need them: never touch a switch while standing in water, never go near a gas meter that is under water or in a cellar, and nothing that got wet goes back on until a registered electrician or Gas Safe engineer has checked it.
What you’ll be able to do
- Read your nation’s flood map and know which band each source puts you in, rivers, sea, surface water, groundwater and reservoirs, and what the percentage really means.
- Sign up for free flood warnings in England, Scotland or Wales, and know what to follow instead in Northern Ireland.
- Write a seven-part household flood plan and split it into what to do now, at an alert and at a warning.
- Find your stop tap, gas emergency control valve and main electrical switch, and know the rule for when not to touch them.
- Clean, dry and record a flooded home in the order the health agencies set out, with the water line marked and the evidence a claim needs kept.
- Follow a flood claim stage by stage, check whether Flood Re could apply to your home, and know which recovery grants each nation has offered and how they are switched on.
Look inside
The cover, the start of chapter 1 and the contents. The free sample has the first chapter in full.
What’s inside
5 chapters across 72 pages. Read it straight through, or go to the chapter you need.
most UK homes are not at flood risk, and if Chapter 1 told you yours is not, you may read this chapter once and never act on it. If there is no warning in force and no water near your property, there is nothing to do today. What everyone can take from it is three sentences: never walk or drive through floodwater, however shallow; never touch electrics while standing in water; and if you are told to leave, leave.
When not to buy this
If your home comes back in the lowest band for every source and you have no basement or ground-floor living space, you do not need this book: sign up for free warnings where your nation offers them and keep a photograph of each room. Everything it draws on is published free by the Environment Agency, SEPA, Natural Resources Wales, nidirect, UKHSA, the ABI and the others named in its sources. Buy it if you want those pages read together, in the order a flood happens, with the four nations compared. It is information, not advice, and it does not replace your insurer, your council or the emergency services.
Questions
I rent. Is there anything in it for me?+
Yes. The plan chapter says which building changes need the landlord’s agreement first, the after-flood chapter sets out that in England the landlord is responsible for flood repairs and what to ask in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the insurance chapter explains that Flood Re can cover a tenant’s contents even where the building itself would not qualify.
Does it tell me whether my house will flood?+
No, and it says so in the first chapter: every nation’s map describes an area, not a property, and leaves out drains, sewers and the failure of defences. What it does is show you how to read your result for each source, how the bands differ between the four nations, and what to do with a ‘high’ or ‘medium’.
My home was built after 2009. Does the insurance chapter still help?+
Yes. It explains that Flood Re does not cover homes built on or after 1 January 2009, with one exception for a pre-2009 home that is demolished and rebuilt, and points to the specialist directory’s separate route for newer homes. The claims sequence, the Ombudsman’s time limits and the recovery grants apply whatever the build date.
What exactly do I get?+
A PDF ebook, A4, 72 pages, that you download straight after paying, to read on any phone, tablet or computer or to print. It isn't a printed book and nothing is posted. We also email you a link to your downloads.
Does it work in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?+
Yes. Where the rules or services differ between the four nations, the file says so and points to the right official service for each.
Will it go out of date?+
It names the official service to check rather than printing fees or amounts that change. If we update the file, your download link gives you the current version.
Can I get a refund?+
Because it downloads the moment you pay, the 14-day cancellation period doesn’t apply to digital files you’ve asked to receive straight away. If a file won’t open or something is wrong with it, email us and we’ll sort it out.
Secure card payment by Stripe. It downloads the moment you pay, so by buying you ask for it straight away and there’s no 14-day cancellation. Terms of sale.
For personal and household use. Buying for an organisation, tenants or staff? Ask about a licence.
The Flood Guide is general information. It is not legal, financial or medical advice. Written by Tom Calder for PreparedBritain, an independent publisher not affiliated with HM Government.
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