About the scheme
The purpose of the Property Flood Resilience Repair Grant Scheme is to help home and business owners to improve the flood resilience of their individual properties when they repair them after a flood. The outcome from this funding should be that if flooding were to happen again, damage levels would be considerably lower and property owners and businesses could return to their properties much more quickly.
Up to £5,000 (including VAT) is available per property to make homes and businesses more flood resilient. This will help homes and businesses recover more quickly from future flooding.
The grant is available to improve the flood resilience of a property. It is not compensation for flood damage or to be used for speculative work. It is for improvements to a property to reduce future flood damage. Only fully completed works that improve the flood resilience of a property will be reimbursed.
How to apply
Application Process in 3 Steps
1.Complete an Expression of Interest
To apply for the grant, you will need to first complete the Expression of Interest Form to register your property and receive your unique reference number. We will aim to respond to your Expression of Interest and inform you whether or not you have been successful within 10 working days.
2.Confirm your eligibility to proceed with your application
If your Expression of Interest is successful and your eligibility is confirmed by our team, you will receive further guidance on how to meet the grant requirements and how to proceed with completing the application form. If you are unsuccessful, we will inform you of the reason why you have been unsuccessful. Please do not fill out the application form until you have been advised that you are eligible to apply.
3.Complete the Application Form
To complete the application form, you will need your unique reference number which you have received when you submitted your Expression of Interest. You can only apply for the grant once your eligibility to complete the application form has been received from our team.
The deadline to submit your full application form is 30 September 2024. We will aim to respond to your full application form within 28 days.
Eligibility Criteria
Who can apply
The grant is available to residential and business owners where the habitable living or business area of the properties have been damaged by entry of flood water, requiring drying out and/or repairs to the building. This does not include flooding from sewerage systems, unless it is caused by increased rainwater (including snow and other precipitation), or a flood caused by a burst water main (within the meaning given by Section 219 of the Water Industry Act 1991).
What will be needed to apply
A property survey is required as part of the scheme to identify things such as where the flooding came from, and the best Property Flood Resilience measures to prevent or limit re-occurrence. A survey must be carried out by a suitably qualified independent surveyor. Up to £800 of the total grant money can be used to fund the cost of a survey. Any cost above £800 would need to be met by the property owner. For Property Flood Resilience purposes “suitably qualified” requires a contractor to have completed the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management Property Flood Resilience Industry Training.
Once the application is received, we will review and confirm its eligibility against the criteria set out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Farming Recovery Fund
The government opened the Farming Recovery Fund on the 9 April 2024 to support farmers who suffered uninsurable damage to their land due to flooding this winter.
Under the scheme, eligible farmers can access grants of between £500 and £25,000 to return their land to the condition it was in before exceptional flooding due to Storm Henk.
Eligible farmers are being contacted directly by Rural Payments Agency (RPA) outlining the support available to them through the Farming Recovery Fund and how they can make a claim.
More information on this can be found on GOV.UK – Government opens fund to support farmers affected by flooding
Contact
If you have any further queries on the Storm Henk flooding incident, please email generalenquiries@somerset.gov.uk or phone us on 0300 123 2224.