UK Government establishes Floods Resilience Taskforce

The UK government established a Floods Resilience Taskforce in September 2024, according to a Welsh government consultation report published in November 2025¹. The report, "Flood Insurance, A Wales Perspective", states that the taskforce was set up "in order to provide oversight of national and local flood resilience and improve preparedness"¹. It includes the devolved administrations, and three taskgroups were established, one of which covers flood insurance¹.

Respondents included the Association of British Insurers, the British Red Cross, the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management's Rivers and Coastal Group, Flood Re, the National Flood Forum, One Voice Wales, the South West Wales Flood Risk Management Group and the Wales Coastal Groups Forum¹.

The report also records other developments in the same period. The Climate Adaptation Strategy for Wales was published in October 2024¹. In April 2025 the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs set out the Welsh government's response to the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales review, "Building Resilience to Flooding in Wales by 2050"¹. In September 2025 the Senedd's Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee published "The response to recent storms"¹.

On insurance, the report cites figures from Flood Re and from a UK poll of 3,300 people across the four nations conducted for the British Red Cross¹. It says 500,000 UK homes have benefited from the partnership model's operation, and that 1,000 properties have been tracked across the UK from 2016¹. Of those, in December 2024 all could get more than one quotation, and only a single property since 2021 had "briefly received no quotes"¹. Quoted prices in high-flood-risk areas are 50 to 55 per cent higher than in lower-risk areas, and a home in a high-flood-risk area with a flood claim typically sees a jump of about another 50 per cent, meaning prices 100 to 120 per cent higher than low-risk, no-claim properties¹.

The report says that as of February 2025, 20,000 properties in Wales had been ceded to the Flood Re scheme in recent months and 900 claims had been made in Wales to date¹. On Build Back Better, it says only 19 properties in Wales had taken up the measures as of January 2025, out of close to 200 eligible claims, and that currently only about 30 per cent of properties offered the measures take them up¹. It puts the average cost to repair a flooded home at more than £70,000¹.

The British Red Cross poll found that of households flooded in the last five years, 56 per cent had contents insurance and 51 per cent had buildings insurance, compared with 75 per cent and 67 per cent respectively among households that had never been flooded¹. It also found that 48 per cent of those who had experienced flooding in their home within the last five years said they had not seen any information about flooding in their area¹.

Why it matters for households

The taskforce covers flood resilience across the UK, including the devolved administrations, so its work bears on how flood risk is managed where people live¹. The insurance taskgroup sits alongside two others, though the report does not set out their remits¹.

For households in flood-risk areas, the report records that quoted home insurance prices in high-flood-risk areas are 50 to 55 per cent higher than in lower-risk areas, rising to 100 to 120 per cent higher for homes with a flood claim¹. Flood Re, the scheme that pools flood risk, had 20,000 properties in Wales ceded to it as of February 2025, with 900 claims made in Wales to date¹. The National Flood Forum told the consultation that it is seeing more people from categories exempt from Flood Re seeking support, and raised concern about what happens when the scheme ends, noting most mortgages now outlast its lifetime¹.

Take-up of Build Back Better, which funds flood resilience measures after a claim, remains low: 19 properties in Wales as of January 2025 out of close to 200 eligible claims, and about 30 per cent of properties offered the measures¹. The report puts the average cost of repairing a flooded home at more than £70,000¹. The British Red Cross findings indicate flooded households were less likely to hold home insurance than those never flooded¹.

What happens next

The report says the original consultation questions are now framed as proposals, and sets out summary proposals and potential routes forward¹. It does not give dates for the taskforce's next meetings or for decisions on the proposals¹.