What does the updated flood map for England mean?

Climate ResilienceArticleApril 14, 2025

Mapping Updates

The Environment Agency (England) has launched new data organisations can use to increase climate resilience. Both the National Assessment of Flood Risk (NaFRA2) data and National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping (NCERM) data bring multiple improvements.

These include:

More detailed flood modelling of river, sea and surface water flooding and coastal erosion
Improved flood zone mapping for planning and development
Providing flood depths for river flooding and ground instability for coastal erosion
Improved assessment of properties (residential and non-residential) and infrastructure (roads, rail & utilities)
Sharing future climate change modelling, based on the Met Office UKCP18 climate data

What does the climate data mean for England?

Overall, the new flood data has some shown an increase in the current flood risk from the previous publicly available mapping.

That means properties which were not previously considered to be at risk of flooding may now be shown as at higher risk. Those previously at risk may have increased in risk level. This could impact mortgages, insurance and the salability of assets.

In addition, the impact of climate change has also been added to the mapping. This shows a further increase in the number of assets at risk of flooding.

Property and businesses will see the impact of flooding, as will critical national infrastructure. A significant proportion of England's utilities and transport infrastructure is exposed to flooding. This could result in road and rail closures, and a loss of utilities resulting in disruption to critical services and commercial activities.

Overall, the mapping shows the serious and worsening impact flooding has on England. A breakdown of the findings can be seen detailed below:

Aspect	Current Impact	Future Impact
Surface Water Flooding	4.6 Million properties (30% increase from previous mapping)	6.1 Million Properties (43% increase)
River and Seas Flooding	2.4 Million Properties	3.2 Million Properties (30% increase)
Road	38%	45.6%
Railway	37%	53.8%
Agriculture	13%	18%
Water infrastructure	34%	38.2%
Electricity	22.1%	25.9%
Gas	35.1%	37.6%

What is being done to manage the flood risk?

National Flood and Coastal Erosion Management is the strategy for all risk management authorities to manage flood risk and build a resilient nation today, tomorrow and to the year 2100.

Updates to the National Planning Policy Framework to reduce development in flood risk areas and require appropriate flood mitigation.

On the 4th of February 2025 the UK government announced £2.65bn over the next two years to protect homes and businesses in England from flooding, an increase from the £250m previously agreed. This funding is to be used for new flood infrastructure and repair and maintenance of existing flood defences with over 1000 flood defence projects planned.

However, this does not mean that your property, business or asset will be fully protected. Flooding may occur before national defences are installed and defences can be overtopped or fail in extreme events. Additionally, existing defences may not be built to withstand this increase in flood magnitude both now and in the future.

It is important we must also prepare at a local property, business or asset level.

What can you do to prepare for flooding events through mitigation and contingency?

Awareness is the first step in resilience. Check your flood risk using the new flood map to see if you are at risk and understand the type of flooding. If at risk, what is the risk level, potential flood depths and how might this impact your property, business or asset? If basements or parts of the ground floor flood, will your access and egress from the property be restricted?

Sign up to early warning systems. Create a plan for how to respond to a flood event. Consider what action can be taken to best manage the flood risk at your location. A flood and climate change assessment may be best to inform these decisions and actions.

Our free flood guide walks you through these steps in more detail to prepare for flooding How to prepare for and respond to flood risks

Climate Hazard Insights

The increasing risk of flooding shown in the new flood map for today and in the future is a common theme across all climate hazards, not just flooding.

Climate change will also increase other climate hazards, such as wind, heat, drought, wildfires and subsidence.

It’s important to prepare for climate change impacts holistically and use the updated flood mapping as an opportunity to better understand and prepare for climate change, not just flooding. Failing to do so could result in wasted expenditure and not being resilient to climate change.

How can we help you?

At Zurich Resilience Solutions (ZRS) we have a dedicated team of Climate Resilience experts who support organisations to tackle climate change risk to better understand how it might affect their operations, strategy and financial position.

Our Climate Resilience team can help you identify your climate risk such as flooding and provide recommendations to improve climate resilience and help reduce your risk. Check out our website for more details Climate Resilience Solutions | ZRS