Like an EPC, but for flooding: the rating coming to English homes
What happened
On Tuesday 13 October 2026, the government and Flood Re announced plans for a new document for homes in England: a Flood Performance Certificate. Flood Re is the body set up to make flood insurance available and affordable for homes at high risk. The certificates, shortened to FPCs, will be piloted this year in areas at risk of flooding, with more pilots planned in 2027 and beyond. The idea is to do for flooding what Energy Performance Certificates do for energy. An EPC gives your home a rating and tells you what would improve it. An FPC would give a standardised picture of a property's flood risk and its resilience: what protective steps have already been taken, and where more would help. The pilots will test a Flood Performance Rating, which breaks a property's flood risk into three parts – exposure, the characteristics of the building, and resistance measures already fitted. The ratings will draw on the existing Check Your Flood Risk service, which covers risks such as rivers and surface water. The practical aim is to get households investing in things that work: self-closing air bricks, flood barriers, water-resilient flooring and flood-resilient kitchens. Where a homeowner makes those improvements, the assessment should reflect it. Flood Re wants app-based flood self-assessments to become routine, with resilience work recognised by insurers over time. The Floods Minister, Emma Hardy MP, said: "Flooding is devastating for families and communities." Perry Thomas, chief executive of Flood Re, said: "Flood Performance Certificates are about turning awareness into action." Insurers and lenders gave broadly supportive responses. Jason Storah, chief executive of UK and Ireland General Insurance at Aviva, said: "Improving flood resilience of homes is critical, not only for our customers." Robert Stevens, head of property risk at Nationwide, said FPCs could become a valuable tool by providing "clear, consistent information" about flood exposure. Tracey Garrett, chief executive of the National Flood Forum, said: "We welcome the pilots of Flood Performance Certificates (FPCs)."
Why this matters
Flood risk is one of the few household risks that is getting measurably worse rather than better, and the insurance market has been struggling with it for years. The problem a certificate is trying to solve is an information problem. At the moment, a household can spend £5,000 making a home far more resilient to flooding and have almost no way of proving it to an insurer. From the insurer's side, there is no standard, comparable way to tell a well-protected house from an unprotected one on the same street. When neither side can see the difference, nobody is rewarded for doing the work. A rating is an attempt to make the work visible. There is a second benefit that will matter to buyers. If you are purchasing a house, flood risk is one of the hardest things to assess honestly. Sellers are not keen to volunteer it. A standardised certificate, if it becomes normal, would put it on the table in the same way an EPC does. For people who have already been flooded, the appeal is different again. The second flood is often worse than the first, because savings and goodwill have already been spent. Measures that keep water out, or that limit the damage when it gets in, are the difference between weeks out of your home and months. One honest caveat up front: a certificate does not stop water. It is a piece of paper about a house. Whether it leads to anything depends on insurers acting on it and on households being able to afford the improvements it recommends.
What the evidence actually says
The clearest figures in the announcement are about insurance costs and about scale. On cost: earlier this year the government and Flood Re announced that the premium Flood Re charges insurers for contents-only cover in Council Tax Bands A and B will more than halve – from £52 to £25 – from April 2027. Insurers are expected to pass the saving on. That is a specific, dated change, and it is separate from the certificates themselves. On scale: Aviva's figure, quoted in the announcement, is that by 2050 about a quarter of homes are likely to be at risk from flooding. That is a long-range projection from an insurer, not a government statistic, and it should be read as a planning estimate rather than a measurement. On timing, the sources do not agree, and it is worth saying so plainly. The government's announcement says pilots begin in 2026, with more in 2027 and beyond. Flood Re's own annual report says piloting is planned from the second half of 2026. Industry reporting has described a pilot by the end of 2026 with a view to integrating certificates into a discounted premium structure by 2028, while other coverage of the Defra announcement describes a wider rollout next year. There is no published single official date for national rollout. Anyone telling you when FPCs will reach your street is guessing. Flood Re has also proposed a separate certificate for new-build homes, working in the same way, with a pilot targeted for the end of 2026. What is genuinely unknown: whether insurers will offer lower premiums for a good rating, and by how much. Flood Re says it plans to reward certificate holders with lower premiums, and insurers have welcomed the idea in principle. None of that is a priced commitment yet. Until it is, the financial case for a household spending money on resilience work rests on reduced damage, not on a guaranteed discount. We would also flag what a rating cannot do. Check Your Flood Risk data covers risks such as rivers and surface water. Flooding also happens from blocked drains, failed pumps, groundwater and burst pipes. A good rating is not a promise of a dry house.
Qurexa perspective
We deliver prescriptions and groceries across Lincolnshire, which is one of the most flood-exposed counties in England. So this is not an abstract subject for us. When a road floods, deliveries stop. When a home floods, medicines get ruined – soaked boxes, insulin out of the fridge, blister packs thrown away with everything else on a worktop. We have seen it, and the medicines are rarely anybody's first thought on the day. So the part of this story we would add is small and practical. If you live somewhere that floods, think about where your medicines live. Not on the floor. Not in the lowest cupboard. If you use a fridge for insulin or similar, know what you would do without power. And know that you can get an emergency supply. If your medicines are lost or destroyed, a pharmacist can often provide an emergency supply of a regular prescription item, and in a declared emergency the rules are relaxed further. You do not have to go without while you wait for a new prescription. If you are on our delivery rounds and your address becomes unreachable, tell us where else you can safely receive a delivery. A neighbour, a relative, a community centre. It is much easier to arrange before a flood than during one.
Practical advice
Whether or not certificates reach you soon, these steps are available now. Check your own flood risk using the government's Check Your Flood Risk service. It is free and takes a couple of minutes. Many people are surprised. Sign up for flood warnings from the Environment Agency. They are free, and they arrive by phone, text or email. A warning is only useful if it reaches you. Make a simple flood plan and write it down. Where you would go, who you would call, where the gas and electricity shut-offs are, and what you would carry upstairs first. Put medicines and important documents on that list. Keep a list of your medicines with doses, and a photo of it on your phone. If you have to leave in a hurry, that list is what a pharmacist or hospital will ask for. If you are considering resilience work, ask your insurer first whether it will affect your premium or your excess. Do not assume. Ask for the answer in writing. If you are buying a house, ask the seller directly whether the property has ever flooded, and check the risk yourself rather than relying on the answer. And if you have been flooded before, contact the National Flood Forum. It is an independent charity that helps households with insurance, resilience work and local flood schemes, and it costs nothing.
What to know
The government and Flood Re announced Flood Performance Certificates for homes in England on 13 October 2026. Pilots start this year in flood-risk areas, with more in 2027 and beyond. An FPC would work like an EPC, giving a standardised flood rating based on exposure, the building's characteristics and existing resistance measures, drawing on the Check Your Flood Risk service. The aim is to make resilience work visible so that insurers can recognise it. Flood Re says it plans to reward certificate holders with lower premiums, but no discount has been priced or guaranteed. Separately, the Flood Re premium for contents-only cover in Council Tax Bands A and B more than halves, from £52 to £25, from April 2027, with insurers expected to pass the saving on. Timing for wider rollout is not settled. Official and industry sources give different dates, and there is no published national rollout date. A rating is not protection. It does not cover every kind of flooding, and it does not keep water out. Do now: check your flood risk, sign up for free Environment Agency flood warnings, write a flood plan that includes medicines and documents, store medicines off the floor, and ask your insurer in writing before paying for resilience work. Sources: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, "New pioneering certificates to help homeowners cut flood risk", GOV.UK, 13 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-pioneering-certificates-to-help-homeowners-cut-flood-risk; Water Magazine, "Flood Performance Certificates to be piloted in England", 13 October 2026, https://www.watermagazine.co.uk/2026/10/13/flood-performance-certificates-to-be-piloted-in-england/; Flood Re Limited, "Annual report and accounts 2025-2026" (HC 334), 2026, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a43d98d93349b85b718d9a0/flood-re-ara-2025-26.pdf. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
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