Flood Action Week
Flood Action Week 12 – 18 October 2026
Published: 12 November 2026
Flood Action Week 2026
Flood Action Week returns this week (12 – 18 October 2026), and we’re inviting you to join us in raising awareness and supporting communities at risk from flooding.
Flood Action Week is an annual campaign to raise public awareness of flood risk and the actions people can take to prepare for flooding and protect themselves and their property. The annual campaign is run by the Environment Agency, and brings together key national partners, agencies and communities to improve public preparedness ahead of the winter flood season.
The week-long campaign will form part of a wider programme of engagement and weather-activated communications running through autumn and winter. It aims to ensure important public messaging on awareness and preparedness spreads beyond the week itself throughout the winter period.
Every action can help make a difference and help raise awareness. To help you get involved, we’ve created a Partner Pack that includes:
· Flood Action Week images and infographics for use across your social media channels
· Templates for social media and newsletters
· Links to resources and guidance for communities and individuals
Please help us by:
· Sharing our Flood Action Week messages with your networks. You can do this at any time, but it may have more impact during Flood Action Week (12 – 18 October 2026).
· Posting our Flood Action Week materials on your social media channels. You can access our Partner Pack of materials such as social media posts, images and videos on our Dropbox and Canva. Materials continue to be updated and added so please always check the link for the latest assets. Please use the hashtag #FloodActionWeek and link to the Flood Action page.
· Following the Environment Agency on Facebook, X and Instagram and sharing the content we post there.
· Encouraging your colleagues and contacts to support the campaign too.
Flood Action Online website
As part of Flood Action Week, we are launching a new website called Flood Action Online. The new website will be hosted on GOV.UK and will act as a ‘one stop shop’, providing the public with the information they need to better understand their flood risk and prepare for flooding in one place.
The new website will support individuals, businesses and communities to become more resilient to flooding, converting awareness into action by:
· Connecting people to existing services and flood information on GOV.UK, helping them navigate the information more easily and efficiently
· Improving access to trusted government services and advice
· Promoting practical actions that increase preparedness and resilience
· Encouraging uptake of measures that can reduce the impacts of flooding on people, places and the economy
Why is Flood Action Week important?
Around 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are in areas at risk of flooding. Taking action to prepare and knowing what to do in a flood can significantly reduce risk to life, damage to property and the suffering from mental health impacts in the future.
Our climate is changing, sea levels are rising, and we are continuing to see more extreme weather. Climate records continue to be broken across the country and worldwide, with the summer of 2026 provisionally being the UK’s hottest on record. This was a dramatic shift from winter 2025/26, where England received significant rainfall of 42% above the average amount.
El Niño is now firmly established this year and has already exceeded previous records. The strong El Niño doesn’t mean increased flooding is guaranteed, but it does mean that the odds of the UK seeing repeated storm systems, prolonged rainfall, saturated catchments and consequential flooding are higher than average.
The cost of flooding to a home can be tens of thousands of pounds. Devastatingly, flooding also brings a significant risk to life, damage to homes, businesses and communities, and can impact people’s mental health.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how you can support Flood Action Week further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at StrategicCommunications@environment-agency.gov.uk, or contact the Flood team at WNC at LLFA.Enquiries@westnorthants.gov.uk
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Following the Flood Mobile event in Bugbrooke.
It was great to see such a positive turnout from local residents and representatives from parish councils across the area. The event provided an excellent opportunity for people to learn more about flood risk in their communities and the practical actions they can take to make their homes and properties more resilient to flooding.
We were pleased to work alongside colleagues from West Northamptonshire Council and appreciate the support of Bugbrooke Parish Council in helping to host and promote the event. The conversations we had with residents demonstrated a strong interest in understanding local flood risks, signing up for flood warnings, and exploring property flood resilience measures.
For those who were unable to attend, or for anyone wishing to revisit the information presented on the day, the FloodMobile Virtual Tour can be viewed here:
🎥 FloodMobile Virtual Tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HW7TMARHHQ
I have also attached additional flood resilience and preparedness information which you may wish to share with residents through your newsletters, websites, social media channels and other community networks.
We would be very grateful if attendees could take a few moments to provide feedback on the FloodMobile via the QR code attached. Feedback helps us understand what worked well and how we can continue to improve future engagement events within local communities.
We would also appreciate parish councils helping us to raise awareness of flood preparedness within their communities. One of the key messages from the event was the importance of signing up to receive free flood warnings:
🌊 Sign up for free Flood Warnings:
https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/alerts-and-warnings
Thank you again for your support in helping to raise awareness of flooding and build more resilient communities across West Northamptonshire. We look forward to working with you on future community engagement opportunities.