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British businesses are ill-equipped for a flu epidemic according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

The CMI's latest annual business continuity management survey, which is run with the backing of the Cabinet Office, suggested there was much work to be done in order to prepare business for contingencies such as a potential outbreak of bird flu.

Just one in five respondents said they had a robust plan for ensuring work could continue if a flu epidemic hit, with 43 per cent admitting they had no strategy for coping.

However, there was some broader encouragement, with managers showing increasing willingness to consider business continuity plans and almost three-quarters – 73 per cent – saying they felt it was important to their business.

Yet despite an increasing threat to businesses from a range of issues – including terrorism, extreme weather and power shortages – over half of the 1,257 managers contacted said there is currently no specific continuity plan in place at their office.

Given that the figures showed 39 per cent of respondents had experienced disruptions as a result of IT problems and a dramatic three-fold rise in those experiencing weather-related incidents, the CMI said it was important businesses remained alert.

Bruce Mann, director of civil contingencies secretariat with the Cabinet Office, said managers should act on the conclusions of the report.

"The report reveals a situation which, while having a number of identifiable trends towards improved business continuity planning, is also one where there is still much work to be done," he said.

"There are still too many organisations that have no business continuity plan, or have one that is unknown to staff or is not subjected to exercise and review."

In recent years events such as the July 7th terrorist attacks on London, the Buncefield depot explosion and the growing incidence of flooding and extreme heat have pushed business continuity management into the foreground.