Flood Re's Build Back Better scheme has been available since April 2022. Most flood victims have never heard of it. Here is what it is, why it almost never reaches you, and what to ask before it is too late.
RISE Guide · Updated June 2026 · 6 minute read
Since April 2022, English homeowners with a flood-affected insurance claim have been entitled to up to £10,000 beyond the cost of restoring their home — a sum specifically ringfenced for flood-resilience upgrades that reduce the impact of the next flood.
It is funded by Flood Re, the joint government-insurance industry scheme that backs flood cover in the UK. It is paid through participating insurers. It is a real, claimable entitlement, not a discretionary gesture.
The Association of British Insurers' most recent published figures suggest that of the homeowners who could claim it, fewer than one in three actually do.
Why?
When you spoke to your insurer about your claim, did anyone mention "Build Back Better"?
If they did not, you are in the majority. Insurer call centres are not generally trained to volunteer the existence of the scheme. Loss adjusters are not contractually obliged to inform homeowners about it. Contractors who specialise in like-for-like reinstatement — the cheapest, fastest path back to occupation — have no commercial interest in introducing it.
For most claims, the £10,000 simply never enters the conversation. The rebuild goes ahead at standard specification. The next flood arrives, and the cycle starts again.
Is your insurer participating in the scheme?
Not every insurer offers Build Back Better. The scheme is voluntary for insurers. The list of participants includes most large household-name insurers but is not exhaustive.
This is a question to put to your broker, your insurer, or your loss adjuster in writing — not on a phone call. The answer matters. If your insurer participates and the entitlement was not raised with you, that is a conversation that needs to happen before any scope of works is signed.
If your insurer does not participate, that is also information — it may affect what cover you choose at next renewal.
Have you been told what Build Back Better actually pays for?
The scheme funds specific categories of flood-resilience upgrade. Not everything you might want, but a meaningful list:
This is not a complete list. The point is: each item is a documented product or specification. Each one needs to be costed, scoped, and incorporated into the rebuild specification — not retro-fitted six months after the family has moved back in.
And every one of these decisions has to be made before the scope of works is finalised. After that point, they become very difficult to add.
If you are mid-claim and Build Back Better has not been raised — do not let the scope of works be signed until you have had a proper conversation about it.
Call 07391 151719Has the contractor on your case been certified to deliver flood-resilient work?
Flood-resilient construction is not the same as standard reinstatement. Different damp-proof membrane detailing. Different wall-floor junction work. Different product specifications. Different testing.
The Property Care Association (PCA) and BRE have published competency standards in this area. A contractor who has not delivered to BS 85500:2025 or the Ciria C790 guidance is not, by definition, a flood-resilience contractor.
If the Build Back Better entitlement is paid out but the work is delivered by a contractor without the relevant competence, the money is spent but the resilience is not achieved. The next flood will still find a way in.
Do you know the application timeline?
Build Back Better is not paid in arrears. It is applied for and approved as part of the claim process, before reinstatement work begins. The application is made by the insurer or their appointed surveyor — not by the homeowner directly.
This is one of the reasons it is so easy to miss. By the time most homeowners hear of it — if they ever do — the application window has closed and the reinstatement is well under way.
The window for action is the first 30 to 60 days of the claim. Past that, the conversation becomes much harder.
Why does RISE care about this?
Because the founder of RISE missed Build Back Better on both of his own floods. Not because he had not heard of the scheme — but because the scheme did not reach him.
The first flood was June 2023. His insurer had signed up to Build Back Better, but was inside the six-month rollout grace period most insurers were granted. The scheme existed; it was not yet operational on his policy. By the time the insurer's rollout completed, the reinstatement was already under way.
The second flood was September 2024. By then Build Back Better was live with the insurer. But the policy had been arranged through a broker rather than direct from the insurer — and the insurer had quietly chosen to extend Build Back Better only to direct customers in its first phase. Broker-sourced policies, like the founder's, were excluded. Nobody told him this until after the claim was lodged.
This is the kind of detail that does not appear on Flood Re's participating insurer list. It is the kind of detail that does not appear in any policy schedule. It is the kind of detail that emerges only if someone asks the right questions of the broker, the insurer, and Flood Re directly — and pushes until the answer arrives in writing.
This is what RISE does that the insurer's team will not: name the entitlement, verify whether it actually applies to your specific policy in your specific circumstances, time the application, specify the products, and hold the line until either the scope of works reflects it or you have written confirmation that it does not.
When did you last read your home insurance policy properly?
Build Back Better is one example of a benefit that may or may not apply to your policy. There are others. Flood Re ceding arrangements. Accommodation limits and exclusions. Like-for-like vs. modern equivalent reinstatement clauses. Contents single-article limits. The endorsements your broker added that you have never read.
Each of these is a clause that, in the moment of a claim, either works for you or against you. By then, it is too late to change.
An independent policy review — carried out before a flood, while there is still time to switch policies or buy additional cover — is one of the most cost-effective things any homeowner in a flood-risk area can do. It is also one of the rarest.
Build Back Better is the difference between a rebuild that restores your home and a rebuild that protects it from the next flood.
Call 07391 151719This is one of three practical guides published by RISE for English homeowners. The others are The first 72 hours after a flood and How to force a council to fix the infrastructure that flooded your home. For the deeper case on why surface water flooding receives so little national attention, see The Cinderella of Flooding.
Live data from the Environment Agency, refreshed every 15 minutes.
Get notified when new RISE guides are published. Practical, evidence-based, written for English homeowners facing flood recovery. No spam — just real guidance when it's ready.
Your email is never shared. Unsubscribe any time. Privacy policy.
No obligation. No jargon. By the end of the call you will know exactly where you stand — whether you engage RISE or not.
Available 24 hours, 365 days No callback RISE directly
Help us focus future content
RISE is researching gaps in publicly available flood recovery information. If you have 90 seconds, your responses help us understand what homeowners actually struggle to find clear answers on — and shape what we write next.
Take the 90-second survey →