Review of the pilot flood protection grant scheme in a recently flooded area

Following a flood in an area that had benefited from a grant scheme, this research examined its effectiveness and local attitudes to managing flood risk.

Documents

Review of the pilot flood protection grant scheme in a recently flooded area - summary (40KB) PDF

Review of the pilot flood protection grant scheme in a recently flooded area - technical report (1.7MB) PDF

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Details

Background

In 2007 Defra set up a pilot scheme that explored ways of delivering grants to pay for flood protection measures, and assessed the likely takeup by property owners. The pilot involved six locations and provided grants for 199 properties, of which 89% were residential and the remainder commercial.

In November 2009, less than two years after residents and businesses in the town had been provided with grant-funded property-level flood protection measures, the River Eden overtopped its banks and flooded one of the pilot areas (a street in Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria).

Outcomes

This research was commissioned to discover:

  • what difference the government-funded measures had made to the people of the town
  • what factors had affected how effective the grant scheme was
  • how the experience of the flood had changed attitudes towards this approach to flood risk management

The project was started in March 2010 and completed in November 2010, at a cost of £20,915 .

Updates to this page

Published 21 February 2021