Its no shock to see news about rising sea levels in the world today. Or to learn that they’ve recently reached a record high (according to climate.gov) – with not just the level itself rising, but more worryingly, the rate too. Which has in fact doubled. It’s concerning, but not shocking. Obviously, we’ve all had conversations about global warming before, so it just doesn’t feel like anything new…

One of the reasons we think people sweep these sorts of reports under the rug, is because they don’t feel it can (and will) affect them personally. And that reasoning is somewhat understandable. Why would you pay loads of your attention to something you’re unaffected by? It’s also hard when you can’t picture what it could actually mean for the UK (and the people who live here) – until you start hearing names of specific places. Places you’ve been before. Places your friends live. Places you know. That’s when it becomes something you want to start talking about.  

By 2050 its predicted that locations like Portsmouth, Lincolnshire, Kensington, West Berkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire could all be at serious risk of flooding. Really well-known places! But if these don’t really mean anything to you, we can be even more specific, with places like Brighton Palace Pier predicted to be fully submerged too. Even Buckingham Palace could be flooded up to the second floor! So the threat is very real.

But what can actually be done to combat this? So far, the government has plans to invest in a new flood defence programme in England that will encompass 2,000 individual defence schemes. It’s set to receive £5.2 billion in funding over the next 6 years, which will help protect 336,000 properties by 2027, with £860m of that budget allocated for 2022.

This is undoubtedly frightening. But with such problems, come opportunities. Because there’s a lot of work that needs to be done over the next several years to help protect the estimated 5 million homes at risk from flooding in the UK. So who will be able to help do it? Naturally, only the people who know about it…

On the 26th of January we are hosting a Flood Risk and Prevention Conference. Here we’ll be bringing together city councils, agencies and environmental management groups to discuss the projects afoot and the work pipelines that are going to be required to deliver them.

Understanding future opportunities available here early could allow you to position yourselves to be in the right place at the right time and secure a golden deal. If you think your business could contribute, and ultimately benefit from these projects, click the link below to learn more:

Flood Risk and Prevention Conference