Be Ready · What it means for your home
7 things the government's new "Be Ready" checklist doesn't tell you
On 22 October the Cabinet Office asked every UK household to be ready to manage for three days without power, water, phone signal or internet. It's sensible advice. Storms, floods, heatwaves and IT failures do knock out services, and in a big incident the emergency services have to look after the most vulnerable first.
The official checklist is short: water, food that doesn't need a fridge or cooking, a torch, a radio, a power bank, some cash, blankets, a first aid kit, copies of documents.
But a shopping list isn't a plan. Here are seven things it leaves out, and they're the ones that decide whether three difficult days are just inconvenient or genuinely miserable.
Keep enough for three days: 3 litres of drinking water per person per day, food that needs no fridge or cooking, a battery or wind-up radio, a torch, a charged power bank, cash, warm clothing and blankets, a first aid kit and your medicines, plus anything babies or pets need.
How much your household really needs, and where to put it
"3 litres per person per day" sounds simple until you do the maths. A family of four needs 36 litres just to drink, before washing, cooking, a baby's bottles or the dog. That's 18 two-litre bottles. In a flat with no garage, where do they go? And when do they need replacing?
A real plan starts with your numbers: who lives with you, how old they are, what they eat, what needs power in your home.
What to do in the first hour
Most of the damage in a power cut happens because nobody knew what to do first. Do you open the freezer to check? (No.) Do you switch everything off? (Most things, yes, and leave one light on so you know when power returns.) Who do you call? (105, free, from any phone.)
The first hour is when good decisions are easy. After that, everyone is cold, the phone is at 12% and the children are asking questions.
Your landline may not work, and your mobile might not either
As the UK moves home phones onto digital lines, many landlines now need mains power to work. Mobile masts have backup batteries, but they don't last forever in a long power cut. That's why the official list includes a battery or wind-up radio: it may be your only way to hear what's happening.
Do you know which station is your BBC local radio? Have you agreed a time when the family checks in?
The fridge and freezer clock starts immediately
A closed fridge keeps food cold for around 4 hours. A full freezer can keep food frozen for up to about 48 hours if you keep the door shut, much less if it's half empty. After that, some food is fine and some must go in the bin. Knowing which is which saves money and prevents food poisoning.
Keeping warm safely is where people get hurt
Every winter people are harmed trying to stay warm: barbecues or camping stoves brought indoors, gas hobs left on for heat, candles left burning. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no colour.
Never use a barbecue, camping stove, patio heater or generator indoors or in a garage, and never use an oven or hob to heat a room.
There are safe ways to keep a home warm for three days: one warm room, layering, hot water bottles, the right bedding. They just need thinking about before the heating goes off.
Babies, older parents, medicines and pets get one line
The checklist says "supplies for babies and pets" and "your medication". But how do you make up formula safely with no power? What about insulin that lives in the fridge, or a relative who relies on a stairlift or oxygen? Have you joined your energy network's free Priority Services Register?
These are the households that need a plan most, and the ones a generic list helps least.
A plan only works if everyone in the house knows it
If the plan lives in one person's head, it fails the moment that person is at work. Who collects the children? Where do you meet if you can't get home? Who checks on next door? The simplest fix is low-tech: a few cards on the fridge door that anyone in the family can follow.
Turn the checklist into a plan in one afternoon
We wrote The 72-Hour Family Plan for exactly this. It's a practical, printable guide for UK homes that takes the official advice and turns it into decisions that fit your household:
- Calculators for your water and food, with worked examples for couples and families
- The first hour of a power cut, a water outage, phones down, card payments down, a flood warning and leaving home in a hurry
- Hour-by-hour plans for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3
- Keeping warm, informed and in touch without power, safely
- Babies, children, older relatives, medical needs, pets, renters and people living alone
- Fridge and freezer rules: what to keep, what to bin
- Printable sheets: emergency contacts with UK numbers, family plan, grab bag list, kit tracker, medication tracker and fridge-door cards
Instant PDF download · Read on any phone or tablet · Print the pages you need
One-off payment. No subscription. Nothing is posted: you can start this evening.
Who it's for
- Families who've seen the Be Ready advice and want to get it done properly, once
- Anyone caring for children, older parents or someone with medical needs
- People in flats and small homes who need a plan that fits the space
- Anyone who'd rather be calm and organised than anxious and unprepared
What it isn't
- It isn't "prepper" survivalism. No bunkers, no doom, no fear
- It isn't a shopping list of expensive gadgets. Most of what you need is already in your home or your weekly shop
Family Health Ready is an independent publisher. This guide is not produced by, endorsed by or affiliated with the UK Government or the Cabinet Office. Official advice: beready.campaign.gov.uk. In an emergency always follow the emergency services and official instructions. If life is at risk, call 999.