Climate change is projected to have a significant impact upon buildings, infrastructure and utilities. The EPSRC funded programme of research called Building Knowledge for a Changing Climate (BKCC) has over the last three years advanced knowledge of the impacts of climate change on urban drainage, engineered slopes, the electricity supply industry, the aviation industry, historic buildings and infrastructure and the urban environment more generally. It has also developed specialised climate and socio-economic scenarios for impacts assessment studies. Substantial research challenges remain in areas not addressed in the BKCC programme and in more systematic examination of the design and implementation of options for adaptation to climate change. An enthusiastic group of end users from industry and government has been assembled as part of the BKCC programme and have played an active role in the design, monitoring and dissemination of the research results.The Sustaining Knowledge for a Changing Climate will build upon the progress that has been made in BKCC and sustain the community of researchers and end users that has been assembled during BKCC. It will synthesise the results from all of the BKCC projects and present them in a high quality report that will be distributed widely to industry and at a high profile conference aimed at end users. It will continue research in areas of broad interest to industry particularly on problems that only received limited attention during BKCC. Specifically it will, through scoping and pilot studies, work shops and publications progress thinking on (i) use of probabilistic climate scenarios in planning and managing the built environment and infrastructure; (ii) adaptation options that can be beneficial in a range of sectors; (iii) impacts and adaptation in existing and new building stock and (iv) integrating adaptation and solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, SKCC will, through stakeholder and researcher workshops develop a coherent user-led plan for future research into the impacts of climate change on the built environment and infrastructure and development of adaptation solutions. This will prepare for major new research proposals in the field of climate impacts and adaptation.

The pandemic is causing business interruption (BI) across UK businesses, resulting in unprecedently widespread and global economic losses that are too large to be absorbed in full by the insurance industry. Yet, businesses are unlikely to obtain credit for trading without access to adequate BI insurance. As the government steps in to protect businesses, the burden for taxpayers is rising exponentially. This study will develop a novel risk-sharing mechanism to effectively share pandemic BI risk between UK businesses, insurers and government. We will conduct action research; a method where we work with partners to define the problem, act upon it, and embed actions in future learning. We have partnerships agreed with UK business, insurance industry and government stakeholders to develop a BI risk-sharing mechanism. We will evaluate and build upon short-term post-lockdown products being generated by insurers and develop new solutions with this full range of stakeholders. This will enable delivery of a sustainable longer-term governance and funding solution for supporting UK business against interruption from current and future pandemic. Our research team is perfectly equipped as we have studied risk-sharing mechanisms globally for catastrophic disasters, with our results influencing policy and practice. Our research process and policy recommendations will (i) segment pandemic BI risk into core (must-have) and additional (good-to-have) cover elements; (ii) identify who (business, insurance, or Government) should take which elements; (iii) propose a public-private governance and funding solution that combines different strategic responses to sharing BI risk elements across UK businesses, insurance industry and government stakeholders.

Context Households might need to save for two primary reasons: to insure themselves against adverse events, and to provide resources in retirement. While standard economic models often assume that individuals are able to make rational and well-informed choices with respect to their saving and insurance decisions there is considerable evidence that this is not the case. The extent to which this matters for wellbeing is a key academic question with important policy implications. In the UK individuals have a lot of freedom over when and how they save. The recent removal of the requirement to annuitise accumulated pension wealth gives peopl flexibility over how they draw down their funds through retirement. There is considerable concern about people's ability to make these difficult choices well, specifically that many are undersaving for retirement and that some may draw down their pension pots in retirement too quickly. Stronger evidence in these areas is urgently required in order to inform the current development of retirement saving policies, and the regulatory environment and consumer advice market surrounding pension access in retirement. Aims and objectives We propose a programme of research that would use large scale household survey data to produce crucial new evidence for these debates. The first strand will examine the prevalence, persistence and drivers of low liquid wealth, unpicking the relative roles of income levels, pre-committed expenses, family composition and different sources of insurance. We will examine the role such wealth has played in protecting households during the Covid-19 pandemic from financial difficulties. This will shed light on the trade-offs involved in encouraging greater saving for retirement versus policies focussed on encouraging individuals to build up a "rainy day fund". The second strand will assess the drivers and consequences of financial transfers made, during life, between generations. We will quantify the extent of intergenerational insurance of income risk within families during the Covid-19 pandemic. We will then explore the determinants of making transfers, and their effects on the wealth decumulation of givers and wealth accumulation of receivers over a longer period. This allows us to estimate the contribution of transfers to wealth accumulation amongst younger generations and wealth inequalities by family background. The third strand will provide the first comprehensive quantitative assessment of the difference the new pension flexibilities could make to profiles of retirement resources, once people's other wealth and the resources of the wider household are taken into account. We will examine individuals' intentions on how they plan to access their wealth and how the resulting income profiles compare to patterns of spending through retirement among recent generations of retirees. This research will be supported, intellectually and financially, by project partners in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. This will help ensure that the impact of the research on policy and practice is maximised. Our objective is not just to produce valuable evidence, but also to ensure that evidence is known of, understood and learnt from. Applications and benefits This research relates to important public policy issues and will be of direct use to policy makers and practitioners in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. We anticipate the evidence produced by this research programme being of direct use to: policy makers considering whether and how to encourage additional retirement saving; private sector providers designing financial products; policy makers, regulators, and the consumer advice market concerned with making sure that consumers are appropriately supported with the financial decisions they make. Through impacts such as these the research will improve the welfare of individuals and therefore be of considerable social benefit.