Bognor Regis is at flood risk in patches, not across the board. About six per cent of the area sits in the highest river and sea flood zone. A further two per cent sits in the medium-risk flood zone. About four per cent of postcodes carry a high surface-water flood risk. A seafront town that has always known what it signed up for.
On river and sea flooding, about six per cent of the area sits inside the highest-risk flood zone classification used in English flood mapping, and a further two per cent sits in the medium-risk band. Both clusters track along the seafront strip and the lines of the local watercourses that run south to the coast. The postcodes inland of the town centre largely sit outside both zones, which is why the headline figure can sound worse than the experience of any single street.
Surface-water flooding is the form most homeowners actually meet, and the picture here is broader but shallower. About four per cent of postcodes carry a high surface-water risk, a further eight or nine per cent carry a moderate risk, and just under three in ten carry a low risk. That means most of the town has some surface-water exposure on paper, but only a small slice carries the kind of risk that turns gardens into temporary ponds in a serious downpour.
Looking forward, the climate-adjusted flood map pulls about seven in ten postcodes into some form of zoned exposure once expected sea-level rise and intensified rainfall are factored in. That is the modelled century-end picture rather than today's, and it covers anything from minor inclusion in a wider zone to a meaningful change in flood-zone classification. The local coastal management policy out to a hundred years is to hold the line, which means the town is committed to defending the existing coastline rather than retreating from it.
For insurance, what that means is straightforward enough. A property inside the highest flood zone or with a high surface-water rating will carry a premium markup and may need specialist cover to remain insurable on standard terms. A property a few streets inland with no zoning and no surface-water flag is priced like any other south-coast home. Before exchanging contracts on anywhere in town, pull the property's own postcode-level flood report, because the broad headline that Bognor Regis has flood risk does not tell you what your specific address is signed up for.
The flood profile of Bognor Regis is mid-pack for a south-coast town with this much coastline on its doorstep. Real in places, modest in most, and rising slowly in the long-run model that the local plan is already responding to.