The Flood Innovation Centre is urging local businesses to take action to better protect their premises, employees and other assets against the risk of flooding by requesting a free flood survey and follow-up support before it’s too late.
The message from the team at the Flood Innovation Centre, part of the University of Hull but funded to provide support to eligible SMEs in several areas of the country, is that the funding won’t be around forever. Eligible businesses are rapidly running out of time to take advantage of the funding that’s on offer because it comes from European Regional Development Fund and is only available for a few more months.
As well as offering free flood surveys, the Flood Innovation Centre team works with business owners to help them understand the findings of their survey and how to make changes aimed at making their businesses more resilient to flooding.
Pip Betts, Project Manager at the Flood Innovation Centre, said: “We’re now entering the final few months of the project so we’d urge any businesses that are concerned about flooding to contact us as soon as possible if they’d like to arrange a free flood survey and take advantage of the fully funded support that’s on offer.
“The funding won’t be around for much longer, so this is a golden opportunity to take steps to boost the flood resilience of your business, ensuring that you’re better protected for future flooding events. You’ll be supported by our friendly, knowledgeable team every step of the way.”
“Communities across the Hull and East Yorkshire area face a variety of different types of flood risk, but climate change, coupled with increasing urbanisation, means that flood events are happening more frequently.”
The Environment Agency estimates that the average cost of damage suffered by businesses during a flood event is around £82,000. As many as 40% of businesses never reopen after being flooded, and a further 25% that do reopen go on to fail within a year.
To find out more about the fully funded support on offer, contact the Flood Innovation Centre by telephoning 01482 462275, emailing flic@hull.ac.uk or completing the online registration form at www.floodinnovation.co.uk/register.
