Evidence on the costs of floods in England and Wales
This study gathered flood incident and impacts data from 2016 to 2019 to estimate the total economic costs of flooding.
Summary
This study estimated the total economic damages for all floods between January 2016 and November 2019 in England and Wales to be between £504 million and £924 million, with a best estimate of £708 million (2024 prices). The greatest proportion of flood damage was to non-residential properties, accounting for 40% of the total damages.
It also produced estimates of economic damages, known as ‘the costs of flooding’, for 5 named storms that caused flooding impacts between 2016 and 2019.
The research will be used alongside the economic damage estimates from previous years to inform future flood risk management funding and investment decisions in England and Wales. The research approach and findings are described below.
Background
Economic damages are typically reported after major flood events, such as summer 2007, winter 2013 to 2014 and winter 2015 to 2016 which are described in the following reports:
- the costs of the 2007 summer floods in England
- the costs and impacts of the winter 2013 to 2014 floods
- floods of winter 2015 to 2016 - estimating the costs
Between 2016 and winter 2019 there were many fluvial, coastal and surface water flood events with local impacts. This study aimed to collate and analyse information from these events to better understand the range and balance of consequences for smaller scale events.
Data gathering
We collected flood incident and impacts data from 2016 to November 2019 from several organisations through direct engagement and desk-based data gathering. We applied existing methods for estimating economic damages to the data to estimate:
- total economic damages for all flood impacts reported between 2016 and 2019
- economic damages for 5 named storms that caused flooding between 2016 and 2018
We also used the data to create a prototype data repository to collate and analyse the flood impacts data and calculate the economic damages.
The 5 named storms are described below, with links to the Met Office reports for each.
Storm Angus, November 2016 - this was the first storm of the 2016 to 2017 season. It had strong winds accompanied by heavy rain, causing significant flooding across South-West England and parts of South Wales. It caused the South-West main railway line to close, power outage at over a thousand properties, widespread travel disruptions on roads and seawall damage. The Met Office storm Angus report contains more detail.
Ex-hurricane Ophelia, October 2017 - this was the second storm of the 2017 to 2018 season. It had heavy rain and mild temperatures. The strongest winds were around West Wales. It caused significant disruption across western part of England and Wales; this included both road and railway lines closures. The Met Office ex-hurricane Ophelia report has more detail.
Storm Bronagh, September 2018 - this was the second storm of the 2018 to 2019 season. It had widespread strong winds and very heavy rain across the hills and coasts of England and Wales. There were flooding in parts of Wales and Yorkshire leading to disruption in power supplies, flights and rail delays and cancellation. The Met Office storm Ali and Bronagh report contains more detail.
Storm Callum, October 2018 - this was the third storm of the 2018 to 2019 season. It had strong winds and heavy rain across western areas of the UK. It was the most extreme rainfall and flood event to affect South Wales in the last fifty years. There were large waves at exposed coastlines in the south and west, power cuts and road and rail disruption. Homes and businesses were flooded in South Wales. There were reports of 2 fatalities and loss of livestock. Rail services were delayed or cancelled across Wales and Southwest England. The Met Office storm Callum report contains more detail.
Storm Deirdre, December 2018 - this was the fourth storm of the 2018 to 2019 season. It had strong winds, freezing and heavy rain across parts of England and Wales. It caused traffic accidents, power outage in several hundred homes in parts of Wales and planes aborted landings at Manchester Airport due to crosswinds. The Met Office storm Deirdre report contains more detail.
Flood damage estimates - January 2016 to November 2019
The total economic damages for all floods between January 2016 and November 2019 in England and Wales were estimated to be between £504 million and £924 million, with a best estimate of £708 million (2024 prices). The greatest proportion of flood damage was to non-residential properties, accounting for 40% of the total damages. These values are set out alongside estimates from previous major floods in Table 2.
Flood damage estimates - 5 named storms
The flood component of the storms during this period were typically small-scale, and localised, distributed across many locations in England and Wales. Estimates of economic damages from these flood events are based on the data provided by the organisations that responded to our request made in October 2019. The estimate ranges are summarised in Table 1.
Table 1: Flood damage estimates from selected storms (2024 prices)
| Event | Min damages estimate | Best damages estimate | Max damages estimate | Properties flooded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storm Angus, Nov 2016 | £27.6 million | £38.4 million | £50.4 million | 266 residential, 113 businesses |
| Ex-hurricane Ophelia, Oct 2017 | £300,000 | £500,000 | £600,000 | No data |
| Storm Bronagh, Sept 2018 | £1.1 million | £1.6 million | £1.9 million | 17 residential, 4 businesses |
| Storm Callum, Oct 2018 | £9.8 million | £14.4 million | £18.0 million | 106 residential, 43 businesses |
| Storm Deirdre, Dec 2018 | £190,000 | £260,000 | £350,000 | 1 residential |
Additionally, the greatest proportion of flood damage for:
- storm Angus was to non-residential properties - 55% of the total damage
- ex-hurricane Ophelia was to the transport sector - 100% of the total damage
- storm Bronagh was to non-residential properties - 45% of the total damage
- storm Callum was to non-residential properties - 54% of the total damage
- storm Deirdre was to the transport sector - 87% of the total damage
Data limitations
Data was held by hundreds of individuals and organisations, however in some cases data was not recorded as the event was deemed too small. Consequently, the data we collected could be incomplete and inconsistent in its coverage, detail, and quality across the various flood events. This meant we had to use existing methods, rather than develop any improved methods, to estimate the total costs of floods from 2016 through to 2019. It also highlighted the discrepancies from financial estimates, and the reported insurance claims, published by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). Insurance claims could be underestimated due to the reluctance of businesses and or people to make claims.
As this summary presents the estimates of economic damages, we excluded all taxes, but included depreciation, and mental and health impacts of flooding.
Comparison with estimates from previous storms
Total damage estimates for the flood impacts of 3 previous major events have been updated to 2024 prices and are summarised alongside the total estimate for 2016 to 2019 in Table 2.
Table 2: Damages for 3 major events and totals for 2016 to 2019 (2024 prices)
| Event | Min damages estimate | Best damages estimate | Max damages estimate | Approx number of properties flooded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 2007 | £3.75 billion | £4.80 billion | £5.70 billion | 48,000 residential, 7,000 businesses |
| Winter 2013-2014 | £1.31 billion | £1.70 billion | £1.96 billion | 10,500 residential, 3,100 businesses |
| Winter 2015-2016 | £1.69 billion | £2.09 billion | £2.47 billion | 16,000 residential, 5,000 businesses |
| Jan 2016 – Nov 2019 total | £504 million | £708 million | £924 million | 8,700 residential, 1,200 businesses |
Project Information
Project manager: Carolann Simmonds
This project was commissioned by the Environment Agency’s FCRM Directorate, as part of the joint Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme.
Updates to this page
Last updated 20 November 2024 + show all updates
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Page updated to include project findings
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First published.