10/2/2017

In response to a key recommendation from Defra’s recent Property Resilience Action Plan, BRE Global is launching a new certification scheme for independent property flood resilience surveyors. Certificated surveyors will provide property owners with impartial information about the measures needed to make their homes and businesses more resilient to flooding. 

Supported by training from the BRE Academy and industry partners including RICS, certificated surveyors will be able to collect and upload data to a Property Flood Resilience Database recently developed by BRE, AXA and LexisNexis* under an Innovate UK funded programme.  This will create a highly valuable, UK wide industry data source for ‘flood resilient’ properties – supporting insurance applications for ‘at risk’ homes and businesses.

Analysis from the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment indicates the built environment will be increasingly affected by extreme weather events, and that the incidence and severity of flooding will increase.

BRE has been active for many years in built environment flood measurement, reduction and mitigation. In 2014 it created the BRE Centre for Resilience with a remit to identify and address critical issues like climate change which affect the UK's homes, commercial buildings and infrastructure. Its initial focus has been on supporting homeowners and business owners with information to support the uptake of resilience measures. Its experts in this field include Dr Stephen Garvin who is Director of BRE’s Centre for Resilience and BRE Group CEO Dr Peter Bonfield who recently led for Defra on the development of an industry-wide Property Flood Resilience Action Plan.

Dr Stephen Garvin said “Defra’s Property Resilience Action Plan identified the need for skills, standards and certification to reassure property owners that flood resilient repair and property protection measures will be effective. This new scheme and supporting training programme is key to achieving this goal. By creating a robust, independent and specialist group of flood resilience surveyors, we can support people, the business community and our industry better. This is the first of a number of new products Bre is developing in line with the recommendations of the Action Plan.’

The Certification Scheme for Independent Property Flood Resilience Surveyors was announced at the launch of the Flood Resilient House on the 3^rd of February, and will be open for registrations this Spring.

For further information or to register interest please email floodsurveyorsscheme@bre.co.uk

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