Prepping with your neighbours: a street plan that works

Neighbours are part of the official advice

A thread on the UK Preppers Guide forum asks how to build a prepping group with neighbours. It's one of the most useful things you can do, and it's official advice, not a fringe idea.

GOV.UK's Be Ready checklist asks every household to:

• swap contact details with neighbours, and consider a group chat for your street or building
• ask neighbours whether they might need extra support, for example if they're new to the area or don't use technology well
• make a plan to check in on neighbours if an emergency happens, especially in a power cut
• speak to the neighbours of anyone you're worried about and agree that they'll check on them

Be Ready's power-cut page adds: look in on people nearby, share blankets, clothes or food if you can, and pass on news such as when the power is expected back.

Sweden asks for the same thing. Its crisis brochure suggests talking to people in your block of flats or neighbourhood about how to strengthen your shared preparedness, and says that in a crisis we all need to help one another.

Keep it about everyday emergencies

The quickest way to lose neighbours is to open with nuclear war. The quickest way to get them on board is "shall we swap numbers in case the power goes off again?" Storms, floods, power cuts and water outages happen on ordinary streets, and the same plan covers bigger events.

The street plan in five steps

1. A group chat and a paper list

Set up a group chat for the street or building, as Be Ready suggests. Then make a paper copy: house number, names, phone numbers. In a long power cut, phones run flat and mobile masts can go down, so the paper list is the one that works.

Ask permission before you write anyone's details down, and keep the list somewhere safe.

2. Who needs checking on

Ask, gently, who might need help. Typical examples:

• people who live alone, especially older people
• people with a disability or long-term condition
• anyone who relies on powered medical equipment, such as oxygen or a stairlift
• families with a baby or young children
• people who don't use a mobile or the internet

For each one, name one neighbour who will check on them and when (for example, within two hours of a power cut). Suggest they join the Priority Services Register with their energy and water companies; it's free (thepsr.co.uk). Our post on helping older and disabled relatives prepare has a check-in template you can reuse.

3. Skills and kit

Make a short, voluntary list of what people are happy to share in an emergency. Nobody has to list their food store. Useful things to know:

The British Red Cross encourages people to learn first aid and offers free community education workshops. Sweden's brochure suggests learning CPR.

4. A meeting point and time

If phones are down, people need to know where to go. Pick one place (the end of the street, a front garden, the building's lobby) and two times a day, for example 10am and 4pm. Write both on the paper list.

Some streets add a pair of licence-free PMR446 walkie-talkies between a few houses. Range in towns is often short, so test them before you rely on them. See how to reach family when the mobile network is down.

5. Check it once a year

Be Ready asks households to check their kit every six months. A street list goes out of date as people move: refresh it once a year, perhaps when the clocks change.

Going further: a community group

If your street wants to do more, Be Ready's advice for community groups is to:

• contact your council, which may offer advice and practical help
• contact your local resilience forum (LRF), which brings together the emergency services, councils and the NHS; most English and Welsh LRFs publish a Community Risk Register of local hazards (GOV.UK)
• work with groups that already exist: flood wardens, residents' associations, faith and youth groups
• get the basics right: Be Ready points to NCVO's guidance on volunteers, insurance and safeguarding

Be Ready's first rule for community groups is to make sure you, your family and your neighbours are safe and well before helping anyone else. Our community emergency plan template and street emergency plan guides go further.

What not to do

• Don't go to the scene. Be Ready asks people not to turn up at an emergency to help, and not to travel from other parts of the country. Look out for calls for volunteers from your council and local groups instead.
• Don't put yourself at risk. Never go into floodwater, a damaged building or a place that smells of gas to help a neighbour: call 999, or the gas emergency line on 0800 111 999.
• Don't make it about fear. A calm, practical plan gets more people involved.

What official sources don't cover

Be Ready gives the principles (contacts, group chat, checking on people) but no template for a street plan. The five steps above are our way of putting its advice into practice; they're not an official format.

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Related guides

• A street emergency plan: how neighbours can help each other
• A community emergency plan: the official template and how to use it
• How to help in an emergency: volunteering, donating and checking on neighbours
• An emergency plan for flats: what's different, and what to ask
• Priority Services Register: a plain guide

Free tools

• Make a household emergency plan (free)
• Priority Services Register checker

We're an independent UK site, not the government. We check guides against official sources and link to them. In an emergency call 999.

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