Understanding the barriers to uptake of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) in Scotland

Abstract

This research supports efforts to increase the uptake of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures in Scotland by:

1. exploring the reasons why people do not install PFR measures, using in-depth interviews with home and business owners who have been flooded; and 2. identifying what would help encourage owners to make resilient changes to their properties using lessons from Scotland, the UK and internationally, and across other disciplines, for example energy efficiency.

Property owners interviewed for the study had minimal awareness of their flood risk prior to being flooded. Even when participants were aware of their property’s flood risk, from first-hand experience or information after they moved in, they struggled to accept it as an ongoing risk.

The report uses a Theory of Change approach to illustrate the journey home and business owners need to go on to become fully resilient to flooding, and focuses on overcoming the lack of awareness and sense of responsibility as a priority. It identifies two priorities: Firstly, there is a clear need for general awareness raising pre-flood in areas at risk to shift attitudes towards greater risk awareness and risk acceptance. Secondly, this should be combined with a targeted communication campaign and signposting to help and inform at the crisis stage immediately after a flood.

In addition a number of recommendations are made empower communities, and to create an environment around property owners that make uptake of PFR measures the easy choice. The need for information and support will increase as climate change increases the number of properties at risk of flooding in Scotland.