£51 million more for homes and businesses affected by floods

9 Dec 2015 01:54 PM

Extra funding announced by Chancellor takes total support pledged by the government to over £60 million.

The Chancellor has yesterday (Wednesday 9 December) announced an additional £51 million to support households and businesses affected by last weekend’s devastating floods in Cumbria and Lancashire.

This takes the total support pledged by the government to over £60 million.

The government will take a streamlined approach to funding to help households and business access support as quickly as possible.

The money will:

• Help the people directly affected by the floods – providing Local Authorities with over £500 for each household affected; for example, to help with temporary accommodation costs whilst we work to get people back into their homes

• Support people as they protect their homes against future floods by providing grants of up to £5000, so they can install new flood barriers, replace doors and windows with water resistant alternatives, or move electricity sockets up to a safer level

• Ensure flood affected businesses that have had their trading disrupted can get back on their feet, with funding equivalent to £2,500 provided to Local Authorities for each business affected and funding specifically provided for farmers to help restore their land

• Help Cumbria and Lancashire assess the damage to the local highway network following the events over the weekend, to allow us to understand what additional local transport infrastructure funding could be provided to help repair roads and bridges damaged

• Bring the local flood defences back up to their target conditions, with an additional £10 million invested through the Environment Agency to repair the flood defences that were damaged over the weekend

To ensure this funding is delivered quickly and efficiently, the government is creating a new Community Recovery Scheme worth nearly £40 million.

It will be run by local authorities and provide targeted support on the same basis as in the floods that affected the South West and other parts of the country in 2013 to 2014.

The government also recognises the important work by local charities in helping respond to the floods and will match the money raised in by the Cumbria Foundation’s Flood Appeal up to £1 million.

Yesterday’s commitment builds on the support announced by the government earlier in this week:

• The Environment Secretary announced that the government has opened the Bellwin scheme for local authorities affected by floods, and that 100% of eligible costs above the threshold will be met by the government. The Bellwin scheme is administered by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

• The Communities and Local Government Secretary announced business rates and council tax relief for the affected communities.

The government will apply the Barnett formula to this funding so that Devolved Administrations will receive £7.5 million. It is up to them how this money is spent.