Everything a UK household needs for the first 72 hours of a power cut, storm, flood or water outage — organised by category, with realistic quantities and the gear worth buying.
UK guidance · Last reviewed September 2026
Autumn & winter 2026 update
Almost every UK household disruption lands between October and February: named storms taking out power, burst mains in a freeze, and flooding. Three jobs worth doing this month — recharge every power bank and jump starter to full, check that your torch batteries are the size your torches actually take, and move the grab bag from the loft to somewhere you can reach in the dark. Cold also matters: lithium batteries lose usable capacity below about 5°C, so keep power banks indoors rather than in the car or garage.
Not sure which gaps to close first? Score your household in three minutes.
What to put in an emergency kit
Water (3 litres per person per day), three days of no-cook food, a torch and spare batteries for everyone, a charged power bank, a stocked first aid kit with a week of medication, a battery or wind-up radio, copies of key documents, cash in small notes and warm layers. Keep it in two parts: a home kit and a grab bag by the door.
UK resilience guidance is built around three days. That is the window in which storms pass, water supplies are restored and network operators reconnect the majority of homes. Your kit does not need to survive the apocalypse — it needs to make 72 hours boring.
Build it in two halves: a home kit that keeps the household comfortable where it is, and a grab bag by the door in case you are told to leave. Most families already own half of the list below.
No. Unlike some countries, the UK does not distribute a free national survival kit or government emergency pack to households. Official guidance on GOV.UK asks households to put their own supplies together and to keep an emergency plan — the state focuses on warnings, alerts and response, not equipment.
What you can get for free is worth having: register with your energy network operator's Priority Services Register if anyone in the house relies on medical equipment or is vulnerable, save 105 for power cuts, and keep Emergency Alerts switched on in your phone settings. Some councils and water companies also provide sandbags, bottled water or bowsers during a live incident — but only after it starts, which is exactly why the kit below matters.
So treat this checklist as the practical replacement for a government-issued kit. It is the same list national guidance describes, with realistic UK quantities and specific gear instead of generic categories. Full breakdown of what the UK government does and doesn't provide free.
Three kits, three jobs. The home disaster kit is the big one — water, food, light, power and first aid for the whole household, stored in bulk and split across two rooms so a single flooded cupboard cannot wipe it out. The grab bag is a rucksack you can lift in one hand: documents, medication, phone power, a torch, a change of clothes and cash, ready if you are told to evacuate. The car kit lives permanently in the boot — hi-vis, blanket, torch, water and a jump starter, because flat batteries are still the most common UK breakdown.
Build them in that order. Most households never need the grab bag, but every household eventually has a power cut, and almost everyone drives. If you'd rather not assemble each one item by item, we group them as ready-made kits: the Family Ready Pack for the home kit, the Power Outage Pack for light and power, and the Vehicle Emergency Pack for the boot.
Not sure which of the three to start with? The three-minute readiness check scores your household across all seven categories and tells you which gap to close first.
3 litres per person per day (9 litres for 72 hours)
3 days of no-cook food per person
Two full phone charges per person, minimum
One light source per person, plus one per room
One stocked kit, plus 7 days of prescriptions
One radio, one document pack
One bag by the door, one kit in the boot
The quantities that trip people up are water and food. Three litres per person per day and three no-cook meals per person per day, across 72 hours, comes out like this.
| Household | Water | Food | Light | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 adult | 9 litres | 9 no-cook meals | 2 torches | 1 power bank |
| 2 adults | 18 litres | 18 no-cook meals | 3 torches | 1–2 power banks |
| 2 adults + 2 children | 36 litres | 36 no-cook meals | 4 torches + lantern | 2 power banks |
| Add a dog | +3 litres | +3 days dog food | — | — |
A 24-pack of 500ml bottles is 12 litres, so a family of four needs three packs to cover 72 hours. That is the whole calculation — it is usually less shopping than people expect.
These are the gaps that come up again and again in readiness scores. None of them is expensive; all of them are the difference between a kit that works and a cupboard of good intentions.
The single most common gap. Tinned food is the backbone of a UK kit and most kitchens now only have an electric opener or a can with a ring-pull that snaps.
Card terminals and cash machines go down with the power. A £40 float in fives and tens buys fuel, bread and a taxi when the village shop goes cash-only.
Households buy AAs and own AAA torches. Check the sizes your own kit uses and store the batteries next to the torch, not in a kitchen drawer.
Local BBC radio carries flood and power updates when the mobile network is congested. A wind-up or battery set costs less than a takeaway.
Most UK power cuts happen in winter storms, and modern combi boilers stop with the electricity. Foil blankets, a hot water bottle and real layers do more than a heater you can't plug in.
Meeting point, out-of-area contact, school and vet numbers, insurer, 105. Written down, because a dead phone takes your contacts with it.
Start with Lite and upgrade the things you would actually use. Independently selected — we may earn a commission if you buy through these links.
The best balance of quality, resilience and value.
PlusAnker · Power
Maintains communication and access to emergency services when the mains supply is down.
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PlusLifesystems · First Aid
Comprehensive treatment for the common household injuries that make up most real incidents.
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PlusStarnearby · Water
Holds nearly two days of drinking water for a family in one rigid, stackable container.
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PlusWayfayrer · Food
Proper hot meals that need only boiling water — morale matters on day two of an outage.
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PlusGardeners Basics · Food
A good balance of variety and longevity — the sensible middle ground where food resilience genuinely matters.
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PlusNight Cat · Grab Bag
Massive capacity with zips that hold up — the sensible choice if one bag has to carry kit for a whole household.
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NewPlusNOVECRAFTO · Water
A useful middle ground between footprint and storage, with the fittings needed to collect rainwater for routine garden use and short disruptions.
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NewPlusKeilend · Food
The harvest windows let you check and remove potatoes without disturbing the whole crop, while the larger bags support a useful household yield.
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Water and a way to purify it, three days of no-cook food, a torch and spare batteries, a power bank, a first aid kit, a battery or wind-up radio, copies of key documents, cash, medication, and warm layers. Households with children, pets or medical needs should add their own essentials.
Three days (72 hours) is the standard planning window used by UK resilience guidance. That covers the vast majority of power cuts, storms, floods and water supply interruptions before services are restored or support arrives.
An emergency kit stays at home and supports you where you are. A grab bag is a smaller rucksack kept by the door with documents, medication, a torch, phone power and a change of clothes so you can leave within minutes if you are told to evacuate.
Plan for 3 litres per person per day for drinking and basic hygiene — about 9 litres per person for a 72-hour window. A filter bottle or purification tablets extend that if supply is interrupted for longer.
No. UK government guidance asks households to assemble their own supplies. There is no free national kit scheme, so the checklist on this page is the practical alternative. What is free is your energy network's Priority Services Register, the 105 power cut line and Emergency Alerts on your phone.
Less than most people assume, because a household already owns part of it. Water, no-cook food, a manual tin opener and spare batteries are supermarket-priced. The variable costs are the power bank, torches, first aid kit and car kit, which is why we group gear into Lite, Plus and Pro rather than quoting one figure.
Somewhere you can reach in the dark, split across two locations so one flooded or blocked room cannot take out everything. Keep it frost-free and out of direct sunlight, store batteries with the torches they fit, and keep the grab bag by the front door rather than in the loft.
Twice a year is enough. Use the March and October clock changes as your reminder: recharge the power bank, test the torches, check battery and medication expiry dates, and rotate bottled water and food that is nearing its date.
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