Flood protection advice and support now  available to businesses across the Humber and beyond

THE University of Hull’s Flood Innovation Centre has expanded the range of services it provides and can now offer fully funded support to business owners keen to protect their premises, employees and other assets against the risk of flooding.

The team is able to provide support to eligible Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the Humber region (including Hull and East Yorkshire), Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Communities across our region face a variety of different types of flood risk, and climate change, coupled with increasing urbanisation, means that flood events are happening more frequently. During the 2007 floods, more than 1300 business premises were damaged in Hull alone. The Environment Agency estimates that the average cost of damage suffered by businesses during a flood event is around £82,000. As many as 40 per cent of businesses never reopen after being flooded, and a further 25 per cent of businesses that do reopen go on to fail within a year.

Thankfully, by taking a few simple steps to protect their premises, businesses can give themselves a fighting chance of surviving future flooding events. In fact, every £1 spent on property flood resilience measures can save businesses around £5 in flood damage.  Property flood resilience is a term used to describe measures that reduce the risk of flood damage to properties, speed up the recovery process and enable people to get back into their properties quicker after flooding. These measures are installed in business premises, as well as people’s homes, to make them less vulnerable to flooding. Property flood resilience solutions are bespoke to each property; the aim is to identify the measures that are most appropriate for your premises and the type of flooding you face.

Pip Betts, (pictured) Project Manager at the Flood Innovation Centre, said: "We recognise that there is a lack of awareness about what property flood resilience is and how it works. We also know that every business is unique and that’s where our new, tailored approach to working with businesses comes in. Our Technology Research Managers will work with a business to create a bespoke, innovative solution based on their location, flood risk, employee profile, building design and other factors. Our funding means that this support is provided at no cost to eligible businesses."

Pip added: “The Flood Innovation Centre and the wider team at the University of Hull are committed to boosting the resilience of communities at a local, regional and national level. The climate crisis means that the need to take action to mitigate and adapt to flood events has never been so vital.”

Any businesses that are concerned about flooding and its potential impact on their activities but don’t know where to start, are encouraged to contact the Flood Innovation Centre by telephoning 01482 462275, emailing flic@hull.ac.uk or completing our online registration form at www.floodinnovation.co.uk/register.