Photo: Trevor Harris · CC BY-SA 2.0Heavy rain is Havering’s main flood risk: 8.1% of homes, against 0.1% from rivers or the sea
On the Environment Agency’s maps, which allow for flood defences, “high or medium” means at least a 1 in 100 chance of flooding from rivers or the sea in any year. Havering grades B− for hazard risk: #9 of 33 in London.
What stands out about Havering’s hazards
From the Environment Agency’s maps and records and the BGS radon atlas, below.
What Havering faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Rivers and the sea
Surface water
Past floods
The River Beam
Flood warnings
Radon
Havering grades B− for hazard risk
Flood risk from rivers and the sea, against all UK towns.
The share of homes at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea, ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more: fewer homes at risk is better. Towns with none at high or medium risk are ordered by their share at low risk, so they don’t all share one score. Surface water and radon aren’t graded: they are described below.
Where the water goes in Havering
Turn layers on and off. Blue is the risk from rivers and the sea; pink is where heavy rain collects. Both allow for flood defences.
The river and sea risk follows the Ingrebourne, the Rom and the Beam. Surface-water risk is spread across the borough, in dips, underpasses and along small streams, which is why more homes are exposed to it.
0.1% of Havering’s homes are at high or medium risk from rivers or the sea
The Environment Agency’s national map, allowing for defences. A further 1.7% are at low risk.
Share of each UK town’s homes at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea. 35% of UK towns have none; Havering has more than 45% of towns.
| # | Town | People | High or med. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southwark London | 307,076 | 0% | |
| 2 | Islington London | 216,309 | 0% | |
| 3 | Camden London | 209,342 | 0% | |
| … | ||||
| 6 | Hammersmith and Fulham London | 182,187 | under 0.1% | |
| 7 | Wolverhampton West Midlands | 234,029 | under 0.1% | |
| 8 | Havering London | 259,401 | 0.1% | |
| 9 | Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire | 260,560 | 0.1% | |
| 10 | Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear | 286,472 | 0.2% | |
| … | ||||
| 49 | Nottingham Nottinghamshire | 299,786 | 3.6% | |
| 50 | Kingston upon Hull East Riding of Yorkshire | 270,816 | 6.3% | |
UK towns of 182,000 to 363,000 people.
The Environment Agency’s Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea (NaFRA2, June 2026) counts each postcode’s homes by band; the shares weight those postcodes by Census 2021 households. The EA counts include homes built since 2021.
Heavy rain puts about 62.2 times as many Havering homes at risk as rivers and the sea do
Surface water is rain that falls faster than drains and the ground can take it. It is mapped separately from rivers and the sea, and it is not in the Hazard risk Grade.
About 4.7% of homes are at high risk of surface-water flooding (a 1 in 30 chance or more each year) and 3.4% at medium risk: roughly 8,160 households. A further 9.1% face a low risk from surface water. That is more than 87% of UK towns.
Our estimate: every address in the borough (ONS NSUL) read on the Environment Agency’s Risk of Flooding from Surface Water map (NaFRA2, 2025), each postcode’s share weighted by its Census 2021 households. Neither agency publishes a count of homes for surface water, so treat it as a guide; one street can differ from the next.
Havering has flooded in 13 recorded years since 1706, most of all in 1953
Every flood the Environment Agency has mapped inside Havering’s built-up area, newest first. The record is fullest for big river floods; small and surface-water floods are often missing.
- 2021January 2021: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
- 2018May 2018: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
- 2016June 2016: River flooding recorded8 hectares inside today’s built-up area
- 2014January 2014: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
- 2011January 2011: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
- 2007February 2007: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
Show all 13
- 2002December 2002: River flooding recorded1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
- 2000January 2000: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
- 1992January 1992: River flooding recorded1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
- 1974January 1974: River flooding recorded37 hectares inside today’s built-up area
- 1968January 1968: River flooding recorded21 hectares inside today’s built-up area · September Flood
- 1953January 1953: The sea came in384 hectares inside today’s built-up area · Coast Flood Essex
- 1706December 1706: The sea came in248 hectares inside today’s built-up area
Floodwater covered 384 hectares of what is now Havering in 1953, the largest flood the record holds here (January).
1,891 of Havering’s households today live inside the outline of a recorded flood.
Since 1953, the largest recorded flood inside the borough covered 37 hectares.
The River Beam at Hornchurch_Bretons Farm: highest 1.67 m, in June 2016
The highest level each winter (October to September) at the Environment Agency’s Hornchurch_Bretons Farm gauge (Elm Park), since 1990. The river normally runs between 0.08 m and 1.14 m here.
- 23 June 20161.67 m
- 2 October 19931.16 m
- 25 June 20211.14 m
- 30 December 20021.06 m
- 8 July 20121.01 m
- 25 August 20220.99 m
The River Beam has topped its normal range on 3 days since 1990, most in the winters of 2015–16 and 1993–94. By its highest day, the winter of 2025–26 was the 28th-highest of the 34.
Environment Agency Hydrology API, Hornchurch_Bretons Farm (station 5541TH), daily maximum level; the record and normal range from the EA’s stage scale. Live river levels are on GOV.UK’s Check for flooding.
No flood warning or alert is in force for Havering · 6 warnings in 20 years
The Environment Agency has 6 flood warning areas and 4 alert areas reaching into the borough; warnings since the service began in 2006.
The warning area covering the most of Havering, Tidal Thames from The Mardyke to Barking Creek, has not had a flood warning since 2006. Of the 6 warnings, 4 were for River Ingrebourne at Hornchurch and 1 for River Rom at Romford.
2016 had the most warnings (4); 2024 the most alerts (17). The most recent warning was on 14 January 2021.
Show the 10 warning and alert areas
| Area | Kind | Since 2006 | Now |
|---|---|---|---|
| River Ingrebourne at Hornchurch | Warning area | 4 | None |
| River Ingrebourne at Harold Park | Warning area | 1 | None |
| River Rom at Romford | Warning area | 1 | None |
| Tidal Thames from The Mardyke to Barking Creek | Warning area | 0 | None |
| River Beam at Dagenham | Warning area | 0 | None |
| River Rom at Collier Row | Warning area | 0 | None |
| Rivers Beam and Rom | Alert area | 45 | None |
| River Ingrebourne at Harold Park and Hornchurch | Alert area | 27 | None |
| Tidal Thames riverside from Dartford Creek and The Mardyke to the Thames Barrier | Alert area | 26 | None |
| Tidal Thames in the boroughs of Havering, Barking and Dagenham, and Newham | Alert area | 2 | None |
Environment Agency Historic Flood Warnings (first issues only, not updates; “flood watch” counted as an alert before 2011) and the real-time flood-monitoring API. Sign up for free warnings on GOV.UK or call Floodline, 0345 988 1188.
Parts of Havering are in radon Affected Areas, at the low end
Radon is a natural radioactive gas from the ground; long exposure raises the risk of lung cancer. The atlas gives the chance that a home in each 1 km square is above the UK action level (200 Bq/m³).
2% of Havering’s built-up area is in a radon Affected Area (1% of homes or more above the action level).
The squares are indicative: each takes the highest band found anywhere inside it, so most homes in a coloured square are below it. Only a three-month test in the home gives a real answer.
BGS/UKHSA Indicative Atlas of Radon in Great Britain, version 3. Check an address at UKradon.org.
Flood risk in the places around Havering
Share of homes at high or medium and at low risk from rivers and the sea. Tap a town for its page.
| Town | People | High or medium | Low | Hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Havering | 259,401 | 0.1% | 1.7% | B− |
| Barking and Dagenham | 218,236 | 1% | 9% | C |
| Chigwell Row | 2,115 | 0% | 0% | A |
| Aveley | 9,364 | 0.1% | 0.1% | B |
| South Ockendon | 22,441 | 0% | 0% | A |
| Redbridge | 309,509 | 1.4% | 2.3% | C |
| West Horndon | 1,648 | 0% | 0% | A |
| Brentwood | 55,339 | 0.4% | 0.1% | C+ |
Redbridge, 5.7 miles west, has the most homes at risk around Havering (1.4% at high or medium). Chigwell Row, South Ockendon and West Horndon have none.
Get ready for what Havering faces
Free warnings, what to do in a cloudburst, and what to check before you move.
- Sign up free for Environment Agency flood warnings by text, call or email.
- Floodline: 0345 988 1188, 24 hours.
- Havering’s warning areas include Tidal Thames from The Mardyke to Barking Creek and River Beam at Dagenham.
- Surface water rises in minutes, often with no warning issued: stay out of underpasses and dips.
- Keep the gullies and drains outside your home clear of leaves.
- Report a blocked road drain to the council.
- Test over three months, in a living room and a bedroom.
- Above 200 Bq/m³, a small sump and fan usually fixes it.
- New homes in radon areas are built with protection: basic from 3%, full from 10%.
- Check the address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service: it gives rivers and sea and surface water separately.
- Ask whether the home has flooded or had a flood insurance claim; the TA6 property form asks the seller.
- Homes built before 2009 can get flood cover through Flood Re, the government-backed scheme; newer homes can’t.
- Check radon for the address on UKradon.org (a small fee) or ask the seller for a test result.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Defences are counted. Both agencies’ maps allow for flood defences and the chance they are overtopped or fail, so a town behind a defence scheme can show few homes at high risk and many at low risk.
- Surface water is our estimate. Neither agency publishes a count of homes at risk from surface water, so we read each address on the map. A flat on a hill and a basement in a dip can share a postcode.
- Past floods are what was recorded. The flood outlines come from surveys, aerial photographs and reports; many small floods, and most surface-water floods, were never mapped.
- One town, many streets. Risk is street by street. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service before you buy or rent.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Havering
Does Havering flood?
The last flood the Environment Agency recorded inside the borough was in January 2021. 0.1% of homes are at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea on the Environment Agency’s maps, which allow for flood defences. About 8.1% of homes are at high or medium risk from surface water, when heavy rain overwhelms the drains. Havering grades B− for hazard risk against UK towns.
Which parts of Havering are at risk of flooding?
From rivers and the sea, the places the Environment Agency warns directly: River Ingrebourne at Hornchurch, River Rom at Romford, River Ingrebourne at Harold Park and Tidal Thames from The Mardyke to Barking Creek. Surface water can collect in low spots anywhere in the borough. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service.
When did Havering last flood?
The recorded flood outlines inside the borough run from 1706 to 2021 (13 years); the largest was in 1953. Flood warnings have been issued for parts of the borough since 2006, most recently on 14 January 2021.
Is Havering at risk of surface water flooding?
About 4.7% of homes are at high risk and 3.4% at medium risk from surface water, against 0.1% at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea. Surface water floods come with little warning, and the agencies don’t issue warnings for them.
Is radon a problem in Havering?
2% of the borough’s built-up area is in a radon Affected Area on the BGS/UKHSA atlas. Most homes are below it; a three-month test is the only way to know.
Are there flood warnings in Havering now?
No flood warning or alert was in force near Havering at 5 November 2026, 04:24. Live warnings are on GOV.UK’s Check for flooding service and Floodline, 0345 988 1188.
Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database right 2026. Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI 2026.
Sources: Environment Agency Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea, postcodes in areas at risk (June 2026); Natural Resources Wales Flood Risk Assessment Wales (May 2026); ONS Census 2021 households by postcode · Environment Agency Risk of Flooding from Surface Water (NaFRA2, 2025) and Natural Resources Wales Flood Risk Assessment Wales surface water and small watercourses, read at every address (ONS National Statistics UPRN Lookup, September 2026) and weighted by Census 2021 households by postcode · Environment Agency Recorded Flood Outlines and Natural Resources Wales historic flood map, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Environment Agency Hydrology API (daily maximum river level) and flood-monitoring stage scales · Environment Agency real-time flood-monitoring API · Environment Agency Historic Flood Warnings (January 2006 to June 2026) and flood warning and alert areas · BGS/UKHSA Indicative Atlas of Radon in Great Britain, version 3, by 1 km square · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.