Member Article

BeFloodReady Centre opens its doors to provide industry-standardised property flood resilience training

The UK’s first dedicated facility to deliver accredited training on the specification, installation and maintenance of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures has launched.

The BeFloodReady Property Flood Resilience Centre, which has been funded by Defra as part of its PFR Pathfinders programme, will upskill professionals from a wide range of industries including insurance, building & construction, housing and Lead Local Flood Authorities at councils across the country.

The BeFloodReady PFR Centre, which is located in HR Wallingford’s centre of infrastructure excellence, has been developed in partnership with many stakeholders from across the water, flooding and insurance sectors and delivers multiple benefits:

The Chartered Institute of Water Environmental Management (CIWEM) will deliver its PFR Code of Practice theory training from the centre, which was commissioned by the Environment Agency during the Pathfinders project. The Code of Practice contains six standards, which provides a consistent approach to property flood resilience, from understanding the risks facing a property, to assessing what measures are needed, installing them to set standards, and ensuring PFR is correctly fitted and maintained.

The National Flood School provides training and professional development that teaches practical application of current best practices pre flood event, during and post flood event to build a truly resilient community. A champion of standards and creating courses to educate the wider roles within the flood environment, to work towards more cohesion throughout the industry.

The RAIN project, which is one of 25 national projects in the Environment Agency’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme, will use the centre to upskill local Risk Management staff from councils on what measures are available for use in their communities.

In addition, Flood Re will demonstrate the benefits of using PFR to ‘Build Back Better’ to insurers, lenders and the wider property market, plus the centre is available for use by community-based Flood Groups as well as individuals who have an interest in PFR and wish to see flood simulations, or learn more about the wide range of solutions on the market.

Alan Ryan, Programme Manager at West Northamptonshire Council who led the Ox-Cam PFR Pathfinder project, commented: “Awareness and adoption of property flood resilience is growing as people realise that options are available to make their properties more resilient to flood water. The new BeFloodReady PFR Centre is one of the fantastic legacies from Defra’s PFR Pathfinder project, providing a dedicated demonstration property to not only showcase PFR measures in use, but where we can train industry professionals on the specification, installation and maintenance of flood protection products.”

Former Chair of the Property Flood Resilience Action Group and project manager for the BeFloodReady PFR Centre, Graham Brogden MBE, added, “This is the first centre of its kind in the UK and we are delighted to bring together key stakeholders from across the flood risk management community, including CIWEM and the National Flood School, to put property-level flood resilience in the spotlight.

“We have worked closely with many partners to bring the Centre to fruition and create a facility where the CIWEM Code of Practice theoretical training and the National Flood School practical courses can be delivered in a consistent manner.”

The BeFloodReady PFR centre showcases an extensive array of flood resilience and resistance measures, from flood doors, barriers, puddle pumps, toilet bungs, non-return valves, wall membrane systems with accompanying sump pumps, adapted flooring, wall coverings and skirting boards, self-closing air bricks, periscope covers, recoverable kitchens and types of waterproof plaster and insulation.

Concludes Brogden, “The centre has been built to enable an as-real-to-life flood simulation, so visitors can see the demonstration house in a flood scenario and understand how all of the various components of flood resilience works. We are all very proud of the Centre and its future legacy.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by RAIN Project .