How FloodAction Coalition is making nature investable and unlocking a £1bn market for UK water resilience

FloodAction Coalition: unlocking a £1bn market for nature-based water resilience

Water resilience has become one of the defining economic risks of our time, threatening infrastructure, business continuity and long-term investment. Flooding already costs the UK £6.1 billion a year, and peak river flows could rise by up to 45% in some catchments. Yet systems still fund resilience in silos, protecting individual assets rather than whole catchments.

FloodAction Coalition, launched in November 2025, is changing that. Convened by The Conduit and chaired by Aviva, it is co-directed by Wild Natured co-founders Rachel Morgan and Dave Caygill. The Coalition unites insurers, investors, utilities, landowners and public bodies and in its first year has grown to more than 80 member organisations, including Aviva, UBS, Anglian Water, National Highways and The Crown Estate.

The launch attracted over a hundred senior leaders, generated Financial Times coverage and prompted a meeting request from 10 Downing Street. By mid-2026, the Coalition had hosted the Water Resilience Investment Summit attended by 250 people, including Minister for Flood and Water Emma Hardy. It showcased five catchment-scale projects set to protect 24,700 homes and restore 29,300 hectares of habitat and saw the announcement of the UK’s Water Resilience Intelligence Platform.

In October, the Coalition launched a UK-first – two c£100m regional water resilience programmes in Cambridgeshire and Manchester for two regions with opposing water resilience challenges. Each treats nature as critical infrastructure with a water company anchoring investment alongside energy, road and rail operators, bringing together the organisations exposed to water risk in that region to invest in nature-based solutions.

Alongside these activities, the core secretariat run technical working groups delivering market enabling innovations across finance, investment, data and water resilience unit, policy change and insurance.

The case is compelling: nature-based solutions can cut flood peaks and drought impacts by up to 30%, deliver £10 of wider benefit for every £1 invested, and reduce capital costs by 39-50% when used ahead of grey infrastructure. The Coalition’s ambition is to mobilise £1 billion to protect 10 million people by 2030.