Millions more homes in Great Britain at risk of flooding, investigation finds

Walking through the centre of Tenbury Wells is like stepping into a postcard. The independent shops are painted in cheerful colours and flowers spill out of planters. Bunting festoons the lampposts, and the pubs are full, their steamed-up windows glowing orange.

You would not know that just a few months ago, the Worcestershire town was a wreck, destroyed by flood water, with windows smashed and shops gutted. The inhabitants have worked hard to make it pristine again, a vision of the England seen on chocolate boxes and in Christmas films.

But speak to the people who own the shops and you see the misery through the stiff upper lips. Insurers have abandoned Tenbury, which means one more flood could bankrupt the town.

"One more flood and I'm leaving," said florist Richard Sharman, whose shop on the corner of the high street was flooded four times last year. "I can't get contents insurance, I can't afford to rebuild if we flood again, and my lease is up at the end of December, so I just won't renew it."

Sharman did up the shop in 2023, when he moved in. Soon, it could join the small but growing number of abandoned and derelict buildings on the high street.

Climate breakdown is thought to be a driver behind the increasing frequency of severe flooding in Tenbury, which sits between the River Teme and the Kyre brook. Floods used to occur about once a decade. But now, deluges are an almost annual occurrence, having hit in 2019, 2020, 2034 and 2024.

Despite potentially being the first English town to become uninsurable owing to floods, Tenbury is not going to be included in the government's list of flood schemes. Labour said it would give £2.65bn for flood and coastal erosion risk management over two years to March 2026, but the town council has been informed that Tenbury did not make the cut.

"We do feel abandoned," said Lesley Davies, the council's deputy mayor. "We are the blueprint for what could happen in the future - there may be other towns are getting towards that situation, there are a lot of vulnerable towns on rivers all over. But I think we are the first to be in this situation."

The council owns three of Tenbury's main buildings: the town hall, which doubles as a wedding venue; the art deco cinema; and a pavilion used for sports in the summer. All three are now uninsurable, which means when the next flood hits, the buildings could end up ruined for years, or even for good.

The insurers said they would not be able to offer cover because the town faces "almost certain flooding" and there were no schemes planned to solve the problem. The Environment Agency had put together an intricate flood defence plan with a complex design, including flood walls, embankments and 20 flood gates. But the scheme was abandoned after the project costs ballooned to £30m.

"We have no choice," said Robert Perrin, Tenbury's mayor. "We will have to be uninsured. And then if the buildings are damaged we will have to apply for grants, or crowdfund, to fix them. And that could take a very long time, during which they will be closed."

Not many small towns boast an art deco cinema like the Regal, which also puts on pantomimes, theatre shows and bingo nights. Last time it flooded, it was damaged to the tune of half a million, and is now uninsured, meaning it may not be able to be restored if the floods come again.

Davies said: "The theatre company is a not for profit, and wouldn't be financially viable if they had to pay a market rent on that building. So we subsidise it to allow these community events to happen. So if that building was closed due to flooding at any length of time, the Regal theatre company wouldn't survive because they would have no revenue, and we wouldn't be able to fund the repairs, unless we applied for grants, and that would take time. In reality, the theatre would shut down."

The same is true for the independent retailers, many of whom are preparing to pack up and leave. Either they cannot get insurance, or the premiums are unaffordable.

Andrew Bright has owned electrical shop G E Bright since he took over from his father in the 1980s. Situated in the middle of the high street, the shop was running a brisk trade on a Wednesday afternoon. But Bright is leaving.

"We haven't been able to get any flood insurance since 2020. We've moving out of the town centre - it's just not feasible to stay any longer with all the floods," he said. "We've bought some land just outside of Tenbury, and are setting up a shop and warehouse there."

Looking around ruefully, he said: "We've been on the high street since the 1950s. My dad set it up when he finished in the air force. It's a shame leaving but my sons are in their 30s, they're the third generation, so I needed to guarantee their future."

Despite the desperate situation for Tenbury, there is a defiant attitude in the town. The colourful flowers on the high street were planted last year after the floods by volunteers in an attempt to brighten up the town. After the streets had been swept and the shop windows repaired, Tenbury residents got out their trowels and filled planters and window boxes with a rainbow of blooms. It was a small gesture, but shows they thought their beautiful town, on the brink of abandonment, was still worth being proud of.

Davies, who has lived in Tenbury for more than 40 years, said: "We have a huge army of volunteers, every time we flood, and we turn things around, everybody rolls their sleeves up and gets the sandbags out and waders on. We can clean everything up, but we can't repair the buildings."

The flood-prone Worcestershire town being abandoned by insurers