July 15, 2026
Defra officials visit Brigstock
This week, we welcomed a group of flood professionals from Defra to Northamptonshire to showcase some of the work being delivered across the Harpers Brook and Wootton Brook catchments. Throughout the day, they were able to see how Property Flood Resilience (PFR), community preparedness and Natural Flood Management (NFM) are being brought together to create a more resilient future for local communities.
The visit began at Harpers Court in Brigstock, an independent living scheme owned by Amplius, where attendees were shown how a combination of carefully designed Property Flood Resilience measures has helped improve the resilience of the building.
Working alongside installation partner Watertight International, we demonstrated many of the measures that have been installed throughout the property, before carrying out live wet tests to show exactly how the flood windows and barriers perform when faced with 600mm of water.
We even saw Juan Scouller, Head of Flood Risk, Resilience and Insurance Policy from Defra, volunteer to install one of the barriers himself to experience just how straightforward they are to put in place.
More than physical measures
While physical resilience measures are an important part of the picture, the visit also highlighted the work that has taken place to help residents feel prepared and supported.
Residents have received a flood preparedness box and can access to personalised flood plans and local alerts through the Resilico digital platform, enabling them to understand exactly what actions to take before, during and after a flood. The app also helps residents manage ongoing maintenance of their resilience measures.
The Defra team also heard how local volunteers from the village have become ‘flood buddies’, providing additional support to Harpers Court residents should flooding ever occur.
The visit continued to nearby homes where residents shared their own personal experiences of living with PFR. They talked through the install process, and how the measures are helping them to feel more comfortable and confident in their own homes.ย It’s always very humbling to hear the impact the works is having on people’s day to day lives.
Looking beyond individual properties
After lunch at Brigstock Village Hall, kindly hosted by Sally Wilks, the group headed to Rush Meadow Ponds to explore another important part of the RAIN project – Natural Flood Management.
Here, our project manager, Sarah Parr, alongside Lee Gower from Nene Rivers Trust explained how interventions across the landscape can help slow the flow of water before it reaches communities downstream.
Landowner Hugh Shrive also shared why he chose to adapt parts of his land to support neighbouring villages and the wider catchment – while also boosting biodiversity habitats. Modelling indicates that the NFM measures in the surrounding area are projected to reduce peak river levels by around 9cm.
Although that may sound like a relatively modest reduction, in flood risk management it can be significant. Those few centimetres can make the difference between flood water entering a property or remaining below the doorstep. When replicated across multiple locations throughout a catchment, these interventions create a cumulative effect that contributes to improving flood resilience across entire communities.
The group enjoyed walking around the meadows – and we were lucky to spot many dragonflies, damselflies and red kites during our walk (and also a friendly cattle herd!).
A collaborative approach
The visit demonstrated that improving flood resilience is about far more than any single intervention.
Whether it is installing Property Flood Resilience measures, helping residents to ‘be flood ready’, supporting communities through local volunteers or working with nature to slow the flow of water upstream, every element plays a key role. Every piece of the resilience jigsaw creates the bigger picture.
Our thanks go to everyone who took the time and joined the visit from Defra, as well as our project partners including Watertight International, JBA Consulting, HR Wallingford, Amplius, the Environment Agency, Nene Rivers Trust, and Mary Long-Dhonau OBE.
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The RAIN Project is funded by Defra as part of the ยฃ200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes, which is managed by the Environment Agency. The programmes will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate.
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Senior representatives from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) have visited Brigstock in Northamptonshire to see first-hand how a holistic approach to flood resilience is helping communities become better prepared for future flooding.
The visit, organised through The RAIN Project, showcased how Property Flood Resilience (PFR), Natural Flood Management (NFM) and community preparedness are being delivered together across the Harpers Brook and Wootton Brook catchments to help reduce flood risk and improve long-term resilience.
The delegation met representatives from RAIN and key delivery partners and stakeholders, including Watertight International, JBA Consulting and Amplius, to understand how organisations from across the public, private and housing sectors have worked together to support RAINโs objectives.
The visit began at Harpers Court in Brigstock, an independent living scheme operated by Amplius, where delegates were shown the range of PFR measures, installed by Watertight following detailed property surveys undertaken by JBA Consulting, to help better protect residents and the building from future flooding.
The tour included seeing resilience measures within individual apartments, communal areas and key service spaces, including the lift shaft and mobility equipment store, together with live wet demonstrations to show the measures being tested to up to 600mm of water.
Residents shared their personal experiences of flooding they witnessed in 2020 and spoke about the difference the project has made to their confidence and preparedness. Alongside the physical flood resilience measures, residents have also been supported with personalised flood plans via the Resilico app, helping them understand what to do before, during and after a flood event. They have also received personal advice on flood planning from expert Mary – โFlood Maryโ – Long-Dhonau OBE.
Delegates then visited nearby homes where measures have been installed by Watertight and, following installation, were audited by JBA Consulting, such as flood doors, flood barriers and non-return valves, before meeting project partners at Brigstock Village Hall to learn more about the scope of the works involved.
The visit concluded with a guided walk to Rush Meadow Ponds wetland, where RAIN Project Manager Sarah Parr explained how Natural Flood Management (NFM) measures have also been created to help slow the flow of water through the catchment, which includes communities in Sudborough and Lowick.
Juan Scouller, Head of Flood Risk, Resilience and Insurance Policy at Defra, said: “It has been valuable to see first-hand how flood resilience measures are being delivered within the community and to hear directly from the residents they are designed to support. The work RAIN has coordinated here in Brigstock is an excellentย example of partnership working, bringing together organisations from across the area to help build stronger, more resilient communitiesโ
Alan Ryan, Programme Manager for the RAIN programme, said: โFrom day one RAIN has adopted a holistic approach to flood resilience, recognising that the greatest benefits come when catchment management, property resilience and community preparedness are considered together. It was a pleasure to welcome Defra colleagues to Northants and demonstrate how that joined-up approach can deliver lasting benefits for communities.โ
Shelley Evans, Technical Director, JBA Consulting, said: โEffective Property Flood Resilience begins with understanding the unique flood risk that each property faces. Through detailed flood resilience surveys and post-installation audits, we have helped to ensure that the measures are appropriate not only for the type of flooding properties in this scheme are likely to encounter, but for the people that live there.ย We are proud to have played a part in this innovation project.โ
Gareth Boyd, CEO of Watertight, said: โProperty Flood Resilience is about more than installing products; itโs about giving people confidence that they are better prepared, know what steps to take upon receiving a flood warning, and importantly can recover more quickly should flooding occur.
โBy combining PFR with personalised preparedness via the Resilico Connect app, residents benefit from physical resilience measures alongside tailored plans, local flood alerts and maintenance reminders. Together, they help people to feel more prepared when a flood alert is received.โ
Mia Brophy, Sheltered Housing Team Leader at Amplius, said: โThe work carried out at Harpers Court has given residents visible reassurance that meaningful action has been taken to protect them and their homes from future floods. I’d like to thank the RAIN project and everyone else involved in this work for helping us go further and do more for our customers.
โNot only have physical measures been installed, but residents have been supported with their own personal flood plans to help them feel more prepared. This project has been a brilliant example of how flood resilience can protect properties and strengthen residentsโ confidence, independence and peace of mind at the same time.โ