Newsletter #6 (July 2025)

Hi everyone,

I can’t believe it’s been six months since we’ve launched. It’s flown by. Thinking about those months before we slow down for summer, I thought I’d share a bit of a recap of what we’ve been up to. So it’s a bit of a send off before we get back to full-speed this coming September.

To put it simply, six months ago a few flood professionals and community organisers came together to decide on our vision. Now we have a well moderated online community where 96 flooded people from 43 groups regularly talk to one another, offering advice, and discussing shared issues. 

We’ve visited 31 of these groups and held many Zoom events where they meet each other. We’ve filed two submissions with them, one to the Environmental Audit Committee (40 people fed in), and one to Defra (60 people fed in). With groups endorsing, we are making progress on moving from agreement about what is going wrong to agreement about how to fix it. 

We’ve built relationships with powerful stakeholders. Some flood risk professionals are now approaching us for training. Others are policy-aligned with us. Our research has been cited in parliamentary hearings and many groups we have engaged with are active media commentators. We look forward to much more engagement with them on a policy level next year. 

In six months, we’ve gone from zero to an active and growing network of people, and an organisation that is a part of the UK’s flood management sector. And we’re set to grow next year, taking on ‘flood season’ and becoming a force for flooded people. We have a clear theory of how to secure change, we just need to keep going. 

Thank you so much for your trust and participation. We can’t wait for next year. And we sincerely hope that as many of you as possible get a long, restful holiday this summer if you haven’t already. 

In solidarity, 

The team

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PS: here are our personal highlights

Sanjay, community organiser: 

1. Reconnecting with flooded people and communities I've supported in the past: I’ve been so happy to be able to reunite, work with and support flooded communities that I had engaged with many years ago. I have met old friends and found out what they have been up to in trying to solve their flooding issues. Crucially it has felt like I have the ability to empower and help flooded people voice what they want to. It’s also been so good to connect with communities who I haven't engaged with before and go out and meet them. 

2. Finding passion in my work again: Working with flooded people for over 9 years has highlighted to me how much we need to change the overall system to one that really does help and protect people. I feel more confidence in the last 6-months of working for Flooded People UK that we can achieve this, than the previous 18 months, that’s for sure. Working with this amazing team, I hope we will really make some waves (pardon the pun) in the flood risk world.

3. Making sure your voices are heard: it’s been both amazing and inspiring how many flooded people have been so happy to share their stories with us. These harrowing experiences are not easy to re-live, but it has been very important to be able to highlight what happens every time someone has flooded. What has made this a highlight is that now these stories won’t just be collected and forgotten. It’s making sure these will be heard by people at the very top who NEED to listen and understand what flooded people want. 

Harry, community organiser: 

1. Being offered innumerable cups of tea by the kind people taking on flooding:, whether on the south coast or next to Midlands’ brooks. The willingness to meet and explain your flooding is invaluable. 

2. Watching the Floods Minister Emma Hardy get challenged on her numbers: with our research cited at the Environmental Audit Committee meetings. It really showed that we are producing impactful research to pressure for change. . 

3. Seeing different flood groups meet up together:, such as a recent meeting of few in Lowdham, and begin swapping advice and providing support for each other. It made me hopeful that together we can be stronger. 

I’m most excited to see people in our flooded community enter centre stage as spokespeople for change in national media - the more of you, speaking proudly about the need for reform, the better. 

Louis, director: 

1. Watching Siobhan Connors from Shrewsbury Quarry FLAG testify at the Environmental Audit Committee: That was my first time in Westminster, so quite an impressive scene. Beyond all the pomp, though, it felt powerful, and remains a significant step in our shared campaign.

2. Getting to watch trust be built among this organisation’s staff and flooded communities and slowly becoming accomplices: Shout out to Mark Cutbhert Brown for Zoom and Facebook exchanges, Bruce Durham for a phone call I really appreciated, Karen Pearce and Julie Blackburn for our email correspondence, and Siobhan for a lot of phone calls. 

3. Getting this huge grant that I’m not allowed to tell this list about yet. More news to come. 

As always, please feel free to write to us.