If your home is at risk of flooding, getting affordable insurance used to be difficult or even impossible. A scheme called Flood Re changed that. This guide explains what Flood Re is, how it works behind the scenes, which homes are eligible, and how to make sure you benefit from it when insuring a home in a flood-risk area.
What Flood Re is
Flood Re is a government-backed reinsurance scheme designed to make flood cover affordable for homes at high risk of flooding. It does not sell insurance to the public directly. Instead, it works in the background with insurers, allowing them to pass on the flood-risk part of an eligible home insurance policy to the scheme. This means insurers can offer cover, including flood cover, to homes they might otherwise have priced very highly or declined altogether.
Why it exists
Before Flood Re, people in flood-prone areas often struggled to find home insurance that covered flooding, or faced premiums and excesses so high they were effectively unaffordable. Flood Re was created to break that cycle, spreading the cost of flood risk across the whole market so that high-risk households can get cover at a reasonable price while the country invests in better flood defences. It is a safety net for a problem that is becoming more pressing as extreme weather increases.
How it works behind the scenes
From your point of view, nothing about buying or claiming changes. You get a quote from an insurer, take out a normal home insurance policy, and deal only with that insurer. Behind the scenes, the insurer may cede the flood-risk element of your policy to Flood Re, paying the scheme a fixed premium based on your council tax band. If you ever make a flood claim, your insurer handles and pays it, then recovers the flood cost from Flood Re. You never deal with Flood Re yourself.
Which homes are eligible
Flood Re is for domestic properties, and there are clear eligibility rules. The home must have been built before 1 January 2009, be located in the UK, be insured in the name of an individual rather than a business, and fall within council tax bands A to H. It must be a home you or your family live in for some or all of the time, or that is unoccupied. The 2009 cut-off exists so the scheme does not encourage new building on flood plains.
Which properties are not covered
Some properties fall outside the scheme. Homes built on or after 1 January 2009 are excluded, as are purely commercial properties, blocks of more than three flats, and some other categories such as housing association homes. Leasehold flats can be treated differently for buildings and contents. If your property is not eligible, you will need to find flood cover on the open market, where a specialist insurer or broker may still be able to help, so it is worth asking.
The fixed flood excess
One feature worth knowing is that flood claims under a policy ceded to Flood Re come with a fixed excess of £250 for the flood element. This is set by the scheme and helps keep the cover predictable. It is separate from any other excess on your policy for non-flood claims, so check your policy documents to understand exactly what excess applies to which type of claim, as the amounts can differ.
How to make sure you benefit
You do not apply to Flood Re yourself; the insurer decides whether to cede your policy. The practical step is simply to shop around, because not every insurer uses the scheme in the same way, and prices for flood-risk homes still vary. Get several quotes, mention that your home is at flood risk, and compare. Many insurers and brokers specialise in flood-risk homes and work with the scheme, so do not assume affordable cover is unavailable until you have compared properly.
Build Back Better
Flood Re also runs a scheme called Build Back Better. Where an insurer takes part, a homeowner who has been flooded can receive funding of up to £10,000, on top of repairing the flood damage, to install measures that make the home more resilient to future flooding, such as flood barriers, raised electrics or water-resistant materials. If you live in a flood-risk area, it is worth asking your insurer whether they offer Build Back Better before you buy.
What happens after 2039
Flood Re is not permanent. It is due to run until 2039, by which time the aim is for flood insurance to be available on a risk-reflective basis, supported by improved flood defences and resilience measures. For now, though, it remains a vital safety net, and if your home is eligible and at risk, it is the mechanism that makes affordable flood cover possible, working quietly behind your ordinary policy.
Reducing your own flood risk
Alongside insurance, there are steps that reduce flood risk and damage. Signing up for flood warnings, fitting flood barriers or air-brick covers, and moving valuables and electrics higher can all limit the harm a flood causes. These measures will not change your eligibility for Flood Re, but they can reduce the disruption of a flood and, through schemes like Build Back Better, may be supported financially after a claim, making your home more resilient over time.
Flood Re, buildings and contents
Flood Re can support both buildings and contents cover for an eligible home, but it is worth understanding the detail. The scheme reimburses insurers for flood damage to the structure and to contents that were in the property at the time of the flood. It does not change how you buy cover: you still choose buildings, contents or a combined policy in the normal way, and the flood-risk element is handled behind the scenes. The practical point is that an eligible home can get affordable flood cover for both the building and the belongings inside it.
Checking if your home qualifies
If you are not sure whether your home is eligible, there are simple ways to check. Flood Re publishes its eligibility criteria and an online tool, and you can also use a postcode checker to see your flood risk. The most direct route, though, is to ask insurers when you get a quote, since they decide whether to cede your policy to the scheme. If one insurer cannot offer affordable flood cover, another that works closely with Flood Re may be able to, which is why comparing matters.
In short
Flood Re is a behind-the-scenes reinsurance scheme that makes flood cover affordable for high-risk homes built before 2009, in council tax bands A to H. Your insurer cedes the flood-risk part of your policy to the scheme, and you deal only with your insurer. Flood claims carry a fixed £250 excess, Build Back Better can fund up to £10,000 of resilience measures after a flood, and the scheme runs until 2039. Shop around to benefit.
Where to get help and next steps
Read our guide to buildings insurance, which covers flood as an insured event, and how premiums are calculated to see how flood risk affects your price. If you are dealing with damage, see how to make a home insurance claim, and our guide to subsidence covers another weather-linked risk.