From:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Department for Communities and Local Government, Environment Agency, Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, + others
Heavy rain will continue to fall across Northern England today and with the ground still saturated and river levels at recent record highs, there is the potential for further significant flooding especially in Cumbria. The Environment Agency is monitoring the situation closely and will issue further flood alerts and warnings if required.
Teams from the Environment Agency continue to take action to reduce the potential effects of flooding, deploying demountable defences and sandbags to reinforce existing defences, repairing damaged defences, clearing river blockages, monitoring water levels and sending out flood warnings. Environment Agency staff from across the country have been sent to provide support in affected areas.
The Prime Minister has confirmed that an extra 200 military personnel being deployed to flood affected areas, alongside the existing 300 already there. A further 1,000 military personnel are being held in reserve should the situation worsen.
Check for flood warnings
You should continue to check your flood risk and keep up to date by following @EnvAgency and #floodaware on Twitter.
If you’re in Scotland please check the warnings on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency website. If you’re in Wales alerts are available from Natural Resources Wales. Information is also available for anyone in Northern Ireland.
Government support for homes, businesses, farmers and councils
Households and businesses
£51 million to support households and businesses affected by the floods has been announced, with a further £50 million announced on 29 December. This takes the total support pledged by the government to over £100 million. In particular we 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 - further details on this were announced on 19 December 2015 by the Department for Communities and Local Government
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
The Communities and Business Recovery Scheme is run by local authorities and will provide targeted support on the same basis as in the floods in 2013 to 2014.
Flood affected communities will not face Council Tax or business rates bills for their homes and businesses for as long as they are out of their properties.
Farmers
Grants worth up to £20,000 are now available to farmers who were affected by the flooding between 4 and 9 December, to help restore damaged agricultural land. An application form and guidance were published on Friday 18 December. Farmers experiencing difficulties getting online can call the Rural Payments helpline on 03000 200 301.
The Rural Payments Agency has published guidance about farm inspections, animal movements, TB testing, impacts on Basic Payment Scheme eligibility, and other Cross Compliance requirements.
The NFU has produced a newsletter for members affected by the flooding in the North East and North West. It contains information on where advice and funding is available to help with the recovery operation.
Local authorities, roads and transport
We will be opening the Bellwin scheme for councils affected by floods resulting from storm Eva as well as storm Desmond. Under this scheme, councils can apply to have 100% of their costs above threshold reimbursed by the government.
We have announced that we will provide £40 million of funding to help repair flood-damaged roads and bridges in Cumbria and Lancashire.
Sports facilities
Sport England has an emergency flood relief fund now amounting to £400,000 to help people repair sports pitches and facilities destroyed by this winter’s unprecedented rainfall. This will help clubs, local authorities and other community sports organisations in affected areas to help pay for emergency repairs to damaged facilities such as rugby and cricket pitches, water sports centres, pavilions, changing rooms and floodlights.
Government action on flood defences
Flood defences helped to protect 11,000 homes across the north of England, and provided vital time for homes and businesses to be evacuated as well as reducing the impact.
Over the next 6 years we will be investing £2.3 billion in flood defences which is a real terms increase on the £1.7 billion invested in the last Parliament. This in turn is a real terms increase on the £1.5 billion spent between 2005 and 2010.
In addition, flood maintenance spending will be protected in real terms over this Parliament.
We’re providing an additional £10 million so that the Environment Agency can repair flood defences that were recently damaged.
Flood insurance
The insurance industry is responding with help for homeowners. The Association of British Insurers has published a film on how to protect your home if you live in a flood prone area, or make a claim if you’re recovering from a flood. You can find more information on the Association’s website.