News story

Government support for recovery from flooding

How the government is supporting communities and business affected by the recent severe flooding.

From:
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Published
15 November 2019
Flood recovery diggers

Since the first day of flooding on Friday, 8 November, the government is providing the following support to help the recovery of people, communities and businesses:

  • The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) activated the emergency Bellwin scheme on the first day of the flooding. Under Bellwin, local authorities dealing with the flooding can apply to have 100% of their eligible costs, above a threshold, reimbursed by the government. This could be for items including rest centres, temporary accommodation and staff overtime.

The government has activated the Flood Recovery Framework

Meaning that for all lower tier or unitary local authority areas which have 25 or more flooded households:

  • MHCLG has committed funding to give all eligible households and businesses affected by the recent severe flooding immediate relief on their Council Tax and Business Rates for at least the next 3 months. This would mean a home owner in a Band D property in Doncaster, for example could see a saving of over £400 over 3 months.

  • MHCLG is providing a Community Recovery Grant to local councils – equivalent to £500 per eligible household – to help communities and vulnerable people in areas severely affected by the flooding with their immediate recovery.

Also, as part of the framework; The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is also providing funding for a Business Recovery Grant which will provide up to £2,500 per eligible small and medium-sized businesses which have suffered severe impacts from the floods that cannot be recovered from insurance.

MHCLG has also deployed Recovery Liaison Officers to the most intensely affected local authorities who will work closely with all councils and Local Resilience Forums.

The government set up the cross-Whitehall Flood Recovery Taskforce, attended by ministers and representatives from local councils to ensure their voices are heard and to provide local areas with bespoke support and guidance.

Ministers and representatives from local councils to ensure their voices are heard and to provide local areas with bespoke support and guidance.On 13 November the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced it will extend its Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers badly affected by the recent flooding across Yorkshire and the Midlands. Through this scheme, farmers and land managers who have suffered uninsurable damage to their property will be able to apply for grants of between £500 and £25,000 to cover repair costs – whether that’s clearing debris or recovering damaged land.

On 19 November, the department also announced that flood-hit homes and businesses will be able to receive up to £5,000 to help protect them from future flooding.

The grants, which will be open to homes and businesses through their local authorities from the end of November onwards, will help homes and businesses to become more resilient to flooding by helping to pay for a range of property improvements. The funding will go towards the additional costs of installing fittings and materials that increase resistance to damage from water in the future, such as putting in flood doors and raising electrics off ground level.

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Published 15 November 2019

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