Recommendation 15

People experience different levels of exposure to extreme weather. Factors such as location, income and health affect people’s ability to cope with and respond to these events. For example, lower income households may be more likely to live in properties at flood risk, which are less expensive to buy or rent, and be less likely to be able to afford the cost of replacing possessions lost to flooding. Our written evidence also highlighted the need to improve the understanding of what kind of vulnerabilities are exacerbated during an emergency with providers of essential services needing to identify and support vulnerable customers in an emergency. We know that those who are vulnerable are disproportionately affected by the risks and impacts of extreme weather, yet there is a gap in knowledge as to how investments in resilience and adaptation could mitigate these impacts.29