11th November 2026
The Government is encouraging households across Britain to prepare for emergencies by keeping at least three days' supplies of essential food, drinking water and other necessities at home. It is sensible advice, but it raises some interesting questions about how well prepared households already are. Why three days was chosen and whether people can afford to put additional supplies aside at a time when the cost of living remains a serious concern.
The new Be Ready campaign, launched by the Cabinet Office on 22 October 2026, is intended to help households cope if everyday services are disrupted by severe weather or other emergencies. These could include prolonged power cuts, interruptions to water supplies, flooding, major transport disruption or problems affecting telephone and internet services.
The Government is not predicting that such an emergency is imminent. Rather, it wants people to recognise how dependent modern life has become on services which are normally taken for granted.
However, the timing of the campaign is interesting. Households are already facing pressure from food prices, housing costs and other essentials, while another substantial increase in energy bills is expected from the beginning of January.
Why has the Government chosen three days?
The three-day recommendation is not an entirely new idea. France, Ireland and the Netherlands already use similar advice in their emergency preparedness campaigns.
The reasoning is relatively straightforward. Following a serious incident, emergency services and local authorities may need time to restore essential services and concentrate their efforts on people who cannot manage without immediate assistance.
If households can look after themselves for 72 hours, emergency responders have more opportunity to help those in greatest need.
There is also a practical consideration. Asking every household to maintain two weeks of food and water would be a considerably greater financial and storage commitment. Three days provides an achievable starting point for most people.
But it is important to understand that three days is a minimum recommendation, not a maximum. There is no reason why households should not maintain a week's or even several weeks' supplies if they have the means and space.
Nor is the Government promising that every disruption will be resolved within three days.
Many households are already better prepared than they realise
There is an interesting distinction between people who deliberately prepare for emergencies and those who simply manage their households in a way that leaves them with substantial supplies.
Consider a family that does a weekly supermarket shop. It might already have six or seven days of food in the house. Even allowing for an occasional meal out, the cupboards may contain enough to last longer than the Government's recommended period.
Other households routinely buy tins, packets, pasta, rice, flour, sugar and other essentials when they are on offer. They may have three or four weeks of food stored away without having any accurate idea of the total quantity.
This is not necessarily stockpiling. It is often simply sensible household management, particularly for people who prefer fewer shopping trips or want to take advantage of supermarket offers.
In rural areas such as Caithness and Sutherland, having additional supplies can also be useful when severe weather makes travelling difficult or deliveries are interrupted.
The sensible starting point for these households is therefore not necessarily another shopping trip. It is to open the cupboards, take stock of what is already there and work out how long those supplies might last.
There is, however, an important distinction between having food available and being able to prepare it during an emergency. A cupboard full of dried pasta and rice is useful in normal circumstances, but much less so if electricity is unavailable and there is no alternative means of cooking.
The Government therefore recommends keeping some food which can be eaten without cooking, including tinned meat, fish and vegetables, dried fruit and nuts.
Water could be the biggest overlooked problem
One of the most revealing findings in the Government's 2026 public preparedness survey concerns drinking water.
The recommendation is three litres of water per person per day for drinking alone. That means a household of two needs 18 litres for three days, with additional supplies required for cooking and washing.
The survey of 10,791 adults found that only 4% of respondents had enough bottled water for their household to meet the three-day recommendation.
Some 82% had less than one day's supply.
This is a striking contrast with the amount of food already held in many homes.
People may have weeks of tinned and packet food but have never seriously considered what would happen if the mains water supply stopped working.
It is easy to take water for granted because it comes directly from a tap. Yet a disruption to electricity, water treatment, pumping stations or distribution networks could affect supplies to homes.
The Government's recommendation is therefore not simply about buying more food. It is about recognising that some essentials cannot be replaced by opening another kitchen cupboard.
What should households actually keep?
The official checklist covers considerably more than food and water.
It recommends a torch and spare batteries, a battery-powered or wind-up radio, a charged power bank, warm clothing, blankets, basic hygiene products and a first aid kit.
Households should also consider cash, copies of important documents, written emergency telephone numbers and sufficient essential medication.
Families with babies need to consider formula, nappies and wipes, while pet owners should include food and drinking water for their animals.
One particularly sensible recommendation is to register with the Priority Services Register if eligible. This helps electricity, gas and water companies identify customers who may need additional assistance during an interruption to services.
The advice also encourages people to check on neighbours who might be vulnerable or isolated.
That last point is particularly relevant in rural Scotland, where an older person living alone may be more vulnerable during a prolonged interruption than someone living in a well-connected town.
The cost of preparing when household budgets are already stretched
There is another issue which should not be overlooked.
The Government is asking people to consider keeping additional supplies at home at a time when many families are finding it increasingly difficult to balance their household budgets.
The 2026 preparedness survey identified affordability as one of the barriers to improving household readiness. Other concerns included food going out of date, uncertainty about what to buy and a lack of storage space.
These are understandable difficulties.
For some families, buying an additional 18 litres of bottled water, extra food, batteries and other emergency items in one shopping trip would represent an unwelcome expense.
The timing is also significant because household energy bills are expected to rise again from 1 January 2027.
The October energy price cap already stands at £1,723 a year for a typical household paying by direct debit. Current forecasts suggest the January figure could be considerably higher, although the final Ofgem announcement is not expected until 25 November.
The House of Commons Library has highlighted forecasts of a 22% increase in gas unit prices and a 15% increase in electricity unit prices.
For households already struggling with heating, food and other essential expenditure, this could mean even less money available for savings or additional purchases.
There is a danger that emergency preparedness becomes another demand placed on families who are already financially stretched.
The Government needs to recognise that being prepared should not mean putting people under further financial pressure.
Preparing gradually makes more sense than panic buying
Fortunately, the Government's own advice is not to rush out and buy everything immediately.
It recommends checking existing cupboards, identifying what is missing and gradually adding one or two items during normal shopping trips.
This is probably the most sensible approach.
A household might already have sufficient food for two or three weeks but need to address its lack of drinking water. Another might have plenty of food and water but no battery radio, torch or alternative means of charging a mobile phone.
People should also check expiry dates and rotate supplies so that food is used normally rather than eventually thrown away.
There is little point buying emergency supplies which are then forgotten about until they have expired.
Households should also consider how they would manage without electricity. A freezer full of food is useful during normal circumstances, but a prolonged power cut creates a different problem. Warm clothing, blankets and a safe alternative means of preparing food become much more important.
Rural Scotland needs to think beyond three days
The advice has particular relevance to Caithness and Sutherland.
Severe winter weather, exposed roads, remote properties and reliance on deliveries can all make interruptions to normal services more difficult to manage.
A road closure or prolonged power failure may affect communities differently from those in larger towns and cities.
There are also households dependent on electric heating, people requiring regular medication and older residents who may have limited access to family support.
For these reasons, having a week's supplies could be a more appropriate personal target for some rural households, even though three days remains the national starting recommendation.
This is not about encouraging excessive stockpiling. It is about recognising that circumstances differ and that national guidance cannot account for every local difficulty.
Preparedness is about common sense, not fear
The Government deserves credit for encouraging people to think about something which is easily overlooked in modern life.
Electricity, water, telecommunications, supermarkets and transport systems are so familiar that most people rarely consider what would happen if several stopped working together.
But the message needs to be realistic.
Many households already have considerably more food than they realise. They should not be encouraged to spend money unnecessarily simply to meet a headline target.
The more important exercise is to check what is already available, identify missing essentials and make sensible improvements gradually.
The survey's findings about drinking water demonstrate why this matters. A household can have a well-stocked kitchen but still be poorly prepared for an interruption to basic services.
And with energy costs expected to rise again in January, the Government must be careful not to make emergency preparation feel like another financial burden.
Three days is a useful starting point. For those who can manage it, a week or more provides additional reassurance.
Ultimately, preparedness is not about predicting disaster. It is about avoiding unnecessary difficulties when something goes wrong.
Sometimes the most useful preparation is not buying more, but knowing exactly what you already have and recognising what is missing.