Improving proactive flood risk management for Coastline Housing with Zurich Municipal   

In the UK, one-fifth of households are at increasing risk of flooding due to climate change, with damage averaging £30,000 per home and residents spending an average of five months in temporary housing.  

While river and coastal flood warnings cover 44% of incidents, 56% of floods are from surface water, which often lack warnings. Surface water flooding, caused by overwhelmed urban drainage systems during intense rainfall, poses a greater risk than coastal or river flooding and affects thousands of properties.  

Housing associations face costly and disruptive challenges in providing alternative accommodation and repairing flooded homes, which also pose serious health and safety risks. The main issue has been the lack of accessible, accurate, and affordable flood prediction and prevention technologies for housing associations. 

Coastline Housing is a housing association based in the heart of Cornwall that owns and manages over 5,000 homes, employing more than 300 people.  

As part of their proactive flood risk management, Coastline Housing signed up to the Previsico Flood Intel Platform available via their insurer, Zurich Municipal. 

They received an early surface water flooding alert in February 2024 which prompted their team to inspect a location where they have considerable housing stock. Whilst no flooding occurred on this occasion, upon inspection, the rainfall made them wary of the vicinity.  

The Previsico Flood Intel Dashboard enabled Coastline Housing to better understand the risks posed on the circumference of the property.  

Coastline Housing have found the early warnings incredibly helpful with their proactive flood risk strategy. The continuous re-running of the model provides reassurance that there is something monitoring their risk all the time.  

Alerts are being used for quarterly reviews to aid decision making and develop a robust plan for dealing with flood risk. 

The housing association sees considerable value in how Previsico helps them understand their stock more accurately and where the pain points lie. 

The alerts inform Coastline Housing whether they should inspect stock in certain areas. Over time they may see trends which will inform stock improvement planning. 

Further benefits include: 

• Teams can take preventative measures to protect buildings, such as setting up pumps and defenses.  
• Adopting the solution has helped Coastline prioritise resident health and safety by allowing vulnerable tenants to be moved away from danger to ensure they are not exposed to contaminated water or mould growth.  
• The housing association was able to minimise 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. Some insurance policies may even offer discounts for properties equipped with early warning systems and other flood mitigation measures.