Under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, councils have a statutory duty to investigate. Here is what most homeowners never realise about how to use it.
RISE Guide · Updated June 2026 · 6 minute read
Most flood victims are told the same thing in the first weeks after a flood: it was the weather. An exceptional storm. A one-in-X-year event. Bad luck. The implication is always that nothing structural can be done.
This is sometimes true. Often it is not.
When flooding is caused or made significantly worse by failing or inadequate infrastructure — a Victorian culvert that has collapsed, a highway gully that has not been cleared, a watercourse that has been illegally obstructed, a drainage system designed for half the rainfall it is now expected to carry — the law provides a statutory mechanism for forcing the council to investigate. Used properly, it can also be the route by which the responsible authority is made to fix the underlying cause.
It is called Section 19. Most homeowners have never heard of it.
Was your flood caused by the weather — or by infrastructure that failed to handle the weather?
This is the question almost no one asks in the first weeks. Insurers do not ask it — they pay out and move on. Loss adjusters do not ask it — it is outside their scope. Contractors do not ask it — they reinstate the property and leave. Councils rarely volunteer it.
And yet the answer can determine whether your next flood is two years away or twenty.
If the cause is infrastructure failure, you are looking at the same issue happening again. Possibly to you. Possibly to your neighbours. Possibly to whoever buys your house when you eventually sell.
If the cause is genuinely a one-in-100-year storm, the conversation is different. But you should know which one it is before you accept the rebuild and move on.
Do you know who the Lead Local Flood Authority is in your area?
The Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) is the upper-tier council in your area — the unitary authority or county council. In the four counties RISE serves, the LLFAs are Buckinghamshire Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Northamptonshire (now split between West and North Northamptonshire), and Central Bedfordshire / Bedford Borough Council.
Under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, the LLFA has a statutory duty to investigate flooding incidents that meet certain criteria — primarily where the cause involves more than one risk management authority, or where the flooding is judged to be significant.
This duty is poorly understood, inconsistently applied, and routinely missed by homeowners who do not know to invoke it.
Has your local council issued a Section 19 report on the flooding that affected you?
If your area has been significantly flooded, there should already be a Section 19 investigation under way or completed. These reports are public documents. They name the cause, identify the responsible parties, and recommend remediation.
If no report has been issued and you believe the flooding was significant, you can formally request one. The request needs to be in writing, addressed to the LLFA, citing the relevant section of the Act and the criteria that have been met.
A council that receives a properly drafted request is much less able to ignore it than one which receives an angry phone call.
RISE has secured a published Section 19 report — and over £2 million in subsequent council infrastructure works — through exactly this process.
Call 07391 151719What happens if the council issues a report and then does nothing?
This is where most homeowners give up. A Section 19 report identifies a cause. It recommends action. And then often, nothing happens for a year. Two years. Five years.
The CIWEM 2023 Surface Water Management report found this to be the rule rather than the exception. Section 19 reports that involve more than one risk management authority — and most of them do, because the drainage system itself crosses organisational boundaries — were significantly less likely to translate into actual remediation.
This is not because councils are uniquely bad. It is because the system is structured to identify causes without funding solutions, and because once a report has been published the political pressure to act often dissipates.
What works, in our experience, is sustained, documented engagement. Not one letter. Not three letters. Not even a year of letters. A documented, multi-year correspondence trail with the LLFA, the responsible utility, the highways authority, and where relevant the Environment Agency, that demonstrates the cause has been identified, the remediation is undeliverable without their action, and the cost of inaction continues to mount.
The Atkins Realis drainage diversion plan that you can see on the Evidence page — the engineering drawing that captures the £2 million of council infrastructure works delivered to remediate the Gawcott culvert — is the visual end-point of that process.
It took four years of sustained engagement. Most homeowners do not have four years.
Can a council be compelled to act if it refuses?
Yes — but the escalation routes are not obvious, and using them poorly burns relationships that you may later need.
The routes include:
Each of these routes has trade-offs. Using them in the wrong order, or too aggressively, can entrench council positions and slow remediation. Using them correctly, in sequence, can produce results that years of polite correspondence cannot.
Why does this matter for your insurance claim?
Because if the underlying cause of the flooding is infrastructure failure, and if that failure is documented in a Section 19 report, your position with your insurer changes. The flood becomes attributable, not random. The risk profile of the property changes once the cause is remediated. Future cover becomes possible to argue for on materially different terms.
And if your insurer refuses to recognise this, the Section 19 report becomes part of the evidence base for a formal complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
None of which happens if no one ever asked for the Section 19 report in the first place.
RISE has triggered, supported, and used Section 19 reports in real claims. Ten complaints raised. Ten upheld. Compensation paid on each.
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 The £10,000 flood entitlement most homeowners never claim. For the deeper case on why surface water flooding receives so little national attention, see The Cinderella of Flooding.
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Go Deeper
A 21-page working manual covering the full statutory framework, when the duty engages, the four-county LLFA mapping, what investigations do and do not do, the escalation playbook when a council fails to act properly, and a sample letter you can adapt. Approximately 6,500 words. Reading time 25 to 30 minutes.
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