It’s the time of year for floods and storms: did you know that flooding is the most frequent natural disaster in the UK? The environment agency has estimated that 2.4 million properties in England are at risk of river or coastal flooding, 3 million properties are at risk of surface water flooding, and 600,000 of these are at risk of both!
The last thing any business owner needs is cost and disruption due to an uncontrollable event. Whilst you may not be able to prevent the inevitable, it’s certainly possible to fight back and limit the damage caused. To stop you getting super soggy, we asked our experts how you can prepare for floods and minimise damage to your business.
The best first step is to assess the risk of flooding to your business. An easy way to do this is to visit the Environment Agency’s find out if you're at risk of flooding page. You can sign up for free flood warnings there or get the flooding history records of a property.
If you’re a larger business, our My Account Plus portal comes with an integrated flood and weather warning tool that’ll give you tailored weather alerts for your sites from the same handy portal that’s monitoring your bills and water use.
If you decide you want a more in-depth assessment of flood risk, you could call in a professional who’ll identify areas you can improve on to protect your business better.
Once you’ve assessed your risk of flood, you can make sure your business is adequately insured against it. Remember that most basic commercial property insurance doesn’t cover flooding or the loss of income that can result.
There are certain things you can do now to prevent excess damage from a flood.
Consider what might actually happen if, despite all your best efforts, your business was flooded. Do you know who to call first? Could your employees continue to work from home, or be temporarily relocated to another site? How would you alert your customers or suppliers? Knowing the answers to questions like these beforehand will save you time and reduce stress in case of the worst.
Once you’ve made a plan of action, don’t forget to make sure it’s easy to access and that managers and employees know about it.
If you found this blog useful, our Fresh Thinking Hub is bursting with more blogs for your business which you might also like!