Southern Housing's success at preventing flooding with Previsico's Flood Intel Platform
As part of their proactive flood risk management, Southern Housing signed up to the Previsico. Due to the early warning provided by Previsico, Southern Housing were able to prevent 100% of flood impacts to their properties.
The challenge
In the UK more than one-fifth of households are at increased risk of flooding due to climate change, with the Environment Agency predicting that by 2050 this will increase to one in four. With damage averaging £30,000 per home and residents spending an average of five months in temporary housing, the main issue has been the lack of accessible, accurate, and affordable flood prediction and prevention technologies for housing associations.
Along with property damage and displacement of residents, other key impacts include increased maintenance and repair costs, risk of uninsurable properties and loss of rental income.
Southern Housing are one of the largest housing providers in the UK with around 80,000 homes across the Southeast, and the Midlands, giving over 167,000 people somewhere affordable to call their own.
In 2021, Southern Housing was significantly hit by a 1 in 100-year flood event where the urban drainage systems became overwhelmed from heavy rainfall. This event caused surface water flooding and damage to ten bungalows housing elderly residents in Chatham, Kent. The average cost of damage to these homes was £50,000 per property and the overall cost to the organization totalled £1 million.
The solution
As part of their proactive flood risk management, Southern Housing signed up to the Previsico Flood Intel Platform available via their insurer.
Two years after their significant flooding event in Chatham, the same area had another 1 in 100-year flood event. However, this time they received a Previsico flood alert email in September 2023 that there was a high risk of flooding in the area in the next 48 hours. This alert was sent out to the regional team 12 hours in advance, allowing them time to prepare before any problems might occur. On this occasion they deployed sandbags and installed flood barriers.
Due to the early warning provided by Previsico, Southern Housing were able to prevent 100% of flood impacts to their properties.
These alerts are useful for us, as we issue them to the regional teams so that they are able to make sure we are prepared for any issues i.e. deploying sandbags, providing residents with clean bottled water etc.
Benefits
Southern housing has gained considerable value from using Previsico. The early warnings help them better understand their high-risk assets more accurately, and they can pinpoint specific issues, like drainage capacity problems at sites that are affected by these risks.
Further benefits include:
- Teams can prioritize areas at greater risk, ensuring flood defenses and resources are targeted where they’re most needed, and can avoid higher costs associated with reactive measures.
- Adopting the solution has helped Southern Housing be proactive in their risk management approach. “It did give us the ability to proactively do something”, explained Carl Dewey, Director of Repair and Estate Transformation at Southern Housing.
- Southern Housing were able to minimize and, in some cases, eradicate financial losses related to repairs, replacements, and rehousing residents.
- Data insights from Previsico offer a deeper understanding of insurance needs and flood impact likelihood, ensuring adequate coverage.