IN Brief:
- Flood Re will test property assessments that consider flood exposure, building characteristics and existing resistance measures.
- The proposed certificates are intended to help owners identify flood protection improvements and communicate them to insurers and lenders.
- Pilot work begins in 2026 and will expand during 2027; no national compulsory certification system has been announced.
Defra and Flood Re have announced plans to pilot Flood Performance Certificates for homes in England, testing a common way to describe a building’s flood exposure and the measures installed to limit damage. The announcement, made on 13 October, sets out a proposed assessment system rather than a new statutory certificate requirement. Flood Re intends to begin pilot work during 2026 and conduct further trials in 2027 and beyond, initially in areas with an identified flood risk.
The certificates would give householders, insurers and mortgage lenders comparable information about individual properties. Under the proposed Flood Performance Rating, assessments would distinguish a building’s exposure to flooding from characteristics of the property and resistance measures already fitted. The government has compared the intended consumer-facing format with an Energy Performance Certificate, although the methods, adoption arrangements and eventual uses of the flood certificates have not yet been finalised.
The proposed ratings would account for improvements already made to individual buildings. Two properties in the same flood-risk area may face similar external water levels but behave differently when floodwater reaches the building. Door barriers, self-closing air bricks and the selection of flood-resilient internal finishes can affect how water enters, where damage occurs and how extensively a property needs repairing. The pilot seeks to reflect these differences without suggesting that physical measures can eliminate flooding or replace accurate assessment of external hazards.
Existing public flood-risk mapping is one input rather than a complete property-level diagnosis. The proposed approach will draw on the government’s Check Your Flood Risk service, which includes river and surface-water risks. Generalised mapping does not establish the height of thresholds, condition of walls, presence of service penetrations or measures already installed at a particular address. The pilots will examine how those distinctions can be represented in a way householders can understand and use when considering remedial works.
When a surveyor specifies retrofit works, the distinction between exposure, resistance and recoverability affects the intervention selected. Resistance measures seek to delay or restrict water entering a property; resilience measures can reduce the damage and recovery time if water does get inside. Water-resilient flooring or kitchen construction, for example, addresses a different failure mode from a barrier across an external doorway. The certificates are intended to show both the current position and opportunities for improvement, but they will not in themselves determine which products or repairs are suitable for an individual building.
Flood Re’s longer-term ambition includes app-based self-assessments and better recognition of improvements by insurance companies. Insurers already account for flood risk when pricing and underwriting cover, but the pilot will test whether a more consistent description of a property’s protective measures can inform those decisions. Government material refers to potential benefits for the availability and affordability of insurance where verified improvement work changes the insurer’s view of risk. It does not promise an automatic premium reduction for every household that obtains a certificate or installs a barrier.
The programme is being developed with homeowners, insurers and lenders. Those groups have different information needs: residents need to understand vulnerable openings and recoverable finishes, lenders need a defensible picture of property exposure, and insurers need evidence that measures are present and likely to perform as intended. Consistency will depend on the pilot’s eventual methodology, including how assessments are checked and how installed measures are recorded. The government has not yet published final ratings, nationwide coverage dates or compulsory inspection requirements. The scope of any professional accreditation or independent audit is therefore also unresolved.
The pilot announcement coincides with Flood Action Week, 12–18 October, when the Environment Agency is encouraging household flood plans and sign-up to warnings. This wider preparedness work remains separate from building modifications. Flood warnings give occupants time to act before an event, while measures such as non-return valves, flood barriers and suitable internal materials are intended to change the way a property responds once floodwater reaches it.
The next test is whether the initial pilots can produce assessments that are intelligible to households and sufficiently dependable for professionals who advise on building repairs, resilience upgrades and insurance. Flood Re has confirmed pilot work in 2026 and further activity during 2027, but locations, detailed scoring arrangements and the route to any national rollout remain to be established.
