Flood Re is a government-backed reinsurance scheme that makes flood cover affordable for eligible UK homes. This guide explains what standard buildings and contents insurance covers for flooding, how Flood Re works, what the £10,000 Build Back Better grant pays for, how risk affects premiums, and what to check before buying a property in a flood zone.
Most standard UK buildings and contents policies cover flood as a named peril. Cover usually pays for structural repairs, drying-out, replacing damaged interior fittings, and alternative accommodation if the home becomes uninhabitable. A small number of budget policies exclude flood or impose very high excesses - always check the policy wording. If the postcode is in a higher-risk flood zone, the premium and excess may reflect that, which is where the Flood Re scheme can make cover more affordable for eligible homes.
Flood Re is a not-for-profit reinsurance scheme set up by the UK government and the insurance industry in 2016 to make flood cover affordable for homes at higher risk of flooding. An insurer issues a normal home insurance policy, then passes the flood-cover portion to Flood Re behind the scenes at a capped reinsurance price. The policy is bought directly from the insurer in the usual way - the homeowner does not interact with Flood Re. The scheme is intended to run until 2039.
To be eligible, a property must have been built before 1 January 2009, be a UK residential property in Council Tax bands A to H (or the equivalent in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), and be insured under a personal home insurance policy rather than a commercial one. Owner-occupied homes and some tenanted properties qualify. Buy-to-let landlord policies, commercial property, and blocks with more than a small number of flats are excluded. The 2009 cut-off prevents the scheme from subsidising new development on floodplains.
Build Back Better is a Flood Re scheme that lets eligible homeowners claim up to £10,000 towards property flood resilience measures as part of a flood insurance claim. The grant covers the cost of installing features such as flood doors, raised electrical sockets, replacement hard floors, and one-way drainage valves on top of the repair work covered by the underlying claim. As of 2026 the scheme is offered by insurers representing most of the UK home insurance market.
Insurers price flood cover using flood-zone data, property-level features (single-storey homes and ground-floor flats are more exposed), claims history, and area-level claims experience. Premiums and excesses are typically higher for postcodes in mapped flood zones - Environment Agency Flood Zone 3 in England, SEPA's High band in Scotland, Natural Resources Wales' High band, and equivalent stretches of the Northern Ireland river network. Where a property qualifies for Flood Re, the flood portion of the premium is capped under the scheme.
The flood excess on a standard buildings and contents policy is typically higher than the excess for most other claim types. Exact figures vary by insurer and by the property's flood risk - lower-risk homes often see an excess in the low hundreds of pounds; higher-risk homes can see excesses of £1,000 or more for the flood element of cover specifically. Properties ceded to Flood Re benefit from capped pricing on the flood portion.
Yes. Flood Re covers eligible properties in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It does not cover the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. Within each nation the eligibility rules are the same, with Council Tax bands replaced by their equivalent property valuation bands where local rating systems differ.
Yes. Insurers share claims history through the Claims and Underwriting Exchange, run by the Motor Insurers' Bureau on behalf of the Association of British Insurers, so a flood claim stays on the property's record even if the homeowner switches providers. Flood Re eligibility itself is unaffected by previous claims as long as the property still meets the scheme's basic criteria.