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Advice about flooding

Flooding can be upsetting and stressful, especially when you’re not sure who to contact to get everything sorted, or what type of flooding has occurred.

What to do when you experience flooding

When you experience any kind of flooding, you'll want to get it sorted as soon as possible. To do this, it's important you're able to indentify what kind of flooding it is, so you know who to contact.

However, there is one thing we recommend in the case of any flooding that affects your home. You should always contact your insurer. If you don’t, it may affect your future claims.

Types of flooding

There are several different types of flooding including:

Major river flooding
Surface water and ground water flooding
Highway and roads flooding
Sewer flooding

Who is responsible for each type of flooding

Different organisations are responsible for each type of flooding.

Rivers

Higher levels of rainwater can cause rivers to burst their banks causing large amounts of flood water and damage. For this, you'll need to speak to the Environment Agency. You can call their Floodline on 0800 80 70 60. They will be able to advise further with the next steps you need to take. The type talk number for this service is 0345 602 6340.

Environment Agency

Surface water

When it's raining heavily, you may notice smaller rivers and streams are bursting. Very high levels of rain can also lead to too much water being stored underground, causing the water to rise up above the surface. This may remain for weeks after the rain has stopped. Contact your local flood authority who'll be able to help and provide advice. Your local flood authority is your county council or unitary authority.

FIND YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL

Highway and roads

If the flooding is coming from a highway drain (the ones with holes you can drop keys down) or a gully in the road near to you, speak to your local county council authority for smaller roads. Contact Highways England for busier and larger routes, such as motorways and dual carriageways. They're responsible for these drains in the road, and can help you further. You can contact Highways England on 0300 123 5000.

Highways England

Sewers and drains

If you can see sewer debris like toilet paper then this will be a sewer flooding. If it's coming from the public sewer we'll be responsible for this. You should report sewer flooding to us immediately. Get in touch and we'll be able to help and provide advice on what to do. If the flooding is only affecting your home and is coming from a private drain on yours or your neighbour’s boundary, then you or the owner of the drain will need to arrange the repair. You should contact your insurer in any case of sewer flooding. If you don’t, it may affect your future claims.

Report a problem

Working with the Highways agency to manage flooding on roads

The Highways Agency are responsible for making sure highway gullys are clear, so if there is flooding on a road due to something blocking the gully or drain, the Highways Agency will deal with it.

If there is flooding on the road because there is too much water in the sewers and drains, we will share responsibility for dealing with it. This is linked to the highway drainage charge on your water bill.

How to protect your home and be prepared

There are steps you can take to make sure your home and your belongings are protected in the event of flooding.

You can check the latest flood warnings in your area, and there are many organisations that exist to help you find insurance that will cover your home and property for flooding.

Flood Re

Flood Re provide help for households that are at greatest risk of flooding. They help to make flood cover more widely available and affordable as part of home insurance.

The National Flood Forum

The National Flood Forum is a charity providing support for individuals and communities affected by flooding. They can also provide advice on reducing the risk of flooding.

The UK Government

There is a lot of useful information on the Government’s website, including how to prepare for flooding, how to report a flood or possible cause of flooding, how to get help during a flood and what to do after a flood.

Remember, if it’s rainwater flooding, then this will drop when the rain stops. Give it a few hours, and see if it improves. For sewage coming out of a manhole, report this to us and we’ll visit your home to investigate.

Report a problem