Sonali Tiwary
Prince William traveled to Somerset this week alongside actor Ross Kemp to launch a national emergency preparedness initiative. Coverage focused heavily on a joke about Kemp’s appearance on a television programme. The actual purpose of the visit — a research-backed toolkit designed to help UK households prepare for floods, power cuts, and other crises before they happen — received considerably less attention. The guidance is practical and directly relevant to millions of UK households approaching autumn and winter storm risk.
The Ready Together toolkit was developed by the National Emergencies Trust (NET), whose Royal Patron is the Prince of Wales. Nottingham Trent University conducted the underlying evidence review, examining more than 19,500 sources and narrowing them to 97 key studies, drawing on accounts from people with experience of more than 155 real emergencies. The Somerset launch site was chosen because the region is one of the most flood-vulnerable areas of England. Local grassroots emergency volunteer teams there are piloting the NET’s community communication tools as part of a live trial. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 framework and Local Resilience Forums provide the national infrastructure within which the toolkit operates.
More than five million properties in England sit in areas with a recognised flooding risk. Homeowners and renters in coastal zones, river valleys, and areas historically prone to flash flooding should verify their risk on the Environment Agency flood map at check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk and register for flood warnings by phone, text or email. That registration is free and takes under five minutes — it can be the difference between hours of warning and none at all.
What the Ready Together toolkit actually covers
The toolkit is organized around four areas: preparing before an emergency, responding during one, supporting recovery afterward, and identifying neighbors who may need help. It is designed for individual households, community groups, faith organizations, and volunteer networks — not only for emergency services.
For households, the most immediately actionable guidance addresses what to have ready before an event disrupts access to utilities, medicines, or communications:
Essential contacts: Write down numbers for your utility providers, GP surgery, a trusted neighbor, and your local council on paper — not only in a phone that may be flat or broken when you need them.
Medications: Keep at least a three-day supply ahead of your usual repeat prescription cycle, particularly for any medication that requires continuous daily administration.
Power and communications: Identify a battery-powered or hand-crank radio. A portable power bank large enough to charge a phone at least once is a minimum preparation for any multi-day event.
Evacuation route: Agree in advance where your household would go if the property became unsafe or inaccessible. If you live in a flood-risk area, confirm whether your most direct route uses roads that flood early — many do.
Vulnerable neighbors: If you know an elderly, isolated, or disabled neighbor, confirm that someone has their contact details and a plan to check on them within the first 12 hours of a major disruption.
Somerset was chosen deliberately for the launch. The region experienced the prolonged 2013–14 flooding of the Somerset Levels and has since built one of the UK’s more developed local volunteer emergency response networks. Those groups are now piloting the NET’s digital communication tools, designed to link community volunteers with Local Resilience Forum coordinators during an active emergency.
The National Emergencies Trust acts as a central fundraising and distribution coordinator during national-scale crises. It works with the British Red Cross and community foundations to channel relief funding to local groups following a national emergency declaration.
Previous Karmactive coverage of UK flood risk zones and the Environment Agency warning system provides more detail on how to interpret your property’s risk band. For readers in Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) flood alert system operates separately from the England and Wales service.
Autumn and winter bring an increased risk of storms, heavy rain and flooding across the UK. The Ready Together toolkit and community sign-up materials are available at the National Emergencies Trust website. Local Resilience Forums publish area-specific risk maps and volunteer registration portals. We will update this piece when NET grant allocations to regional forums are announced.
