Storm Henk
Please note some councils are working to a deadline of 1 March for certain schemes. Please check your local authority's website for more information.
Six schemes have been made available following Storm Henk:
- Community Recovery Grant: up to £500 per flood affected household to help with immediate recovery costs. This is a grant scheme administrated by the DLUHC (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities).
- Council Tax Discounts: passed on to householders for the duration that they remain out of their homes. This a scheme administrated by the DLUHC.
- Business Recovery Grant: up to £2,500 per flood affected business to help with immediate recovery costs. This is a grant scheme administrated by the DBT (Department for Business and Trade).
- Business Rate Relief: passed on to businesses for the duration that they remain out of their premises. This a scheme administrated by the DLUHC.
- Property Flood Resilience Scheme: this Defra scheme offers householders and businesses up to £5,000 per property to fund measures which improve a property’s resilience over and above repairs that would normally be covered by insurance.
- Farming Recovery Fund: government grants of up to £25,000 for farmers who have have been adversely affected by flooding and suffered uninsurable damage to their land.
You should be able to find details of the schemes available in each area on your local authority and council websites, along with instructions on how to apply.
The government has set a deadline of 12 April for applying to your local council for the:
- Community Recovery Grant
- Council Tax Discounts
- Business Recovery Grant
- Business Rate Relief
Please check your local authority website as soon as possible as come councils may be setting earlier deadlines.
Local authorities have until 12 April to notify the government of 50 internally flooded properties to become eligible for flood recovery framework support.
Are farms eligible for business recovery grant support?
Where a farm business is a SME and operates an ancillary SME business which is severely impacted by flooding such as a farm produce shop, ice cream parlour or tea shop, local authorities can award business recovery grants where the applicant satisfies the scheme eligibility criteria in full.
Only one business recovery grant award may be made per ancillary SME business premises and where ancillary businesses share a premises, only one award may be made per premises.
Business recovery grant funding should not be awarded for flooded farmland or fields, damaged crops, loss of livestock or flooded buildings that house livestock such as barns, milking parlours or any other premises from which trading does not take place.
Farming Recovery Fund
This is for Storm Henk only and offers up to £25,000 towards repair and reinstatement costs for farmers – Defra administrated this funding through the Rural Payments Agency.
As of 9 April 2024, the fund is now open to support farmers who suffered uninsurable damage to their land due to flooding this winter.
The eligible counties and rivers announced at this time are listed below:
- Gloucestershire – River Severn, River Thames and River Avon
- Leicestershire – Rothley Brook, River Wreake and River Soar
- Lincolnshire – River Witham, River Brant, River Welland, River Ancholme
- Nottinghamshire – River Trent, River Devon and River Soar
- Somerset – River Brue, River Exe, River Parrott and River Tone
- Warwickshire – River Avon and River Leam
- West Northants – River Nene and River Gt Ouse
- Wiltshire – River Avon (Hants), River Avon (Bristol), River Kennet, River Thames, River Bourne and River Wylye
- Worcestershire – River Severn, River Teme and River Avon
Counties under review at this stage are Berkshire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Norfolk and Derbyshire.
For more information on the fund and how to claim, visit: Farming Recovery Fund to help farmers affected by flooding.
Councils eligible for the flood recovery framework following Storm Henk:
See the list below of councils which are currently eligible for Storm Henk recovery funding:
- Gloucestershire County
- Nottinghamshire County
- West Northamptonshire
- Warwickshire
- Worcestershire County
- Herefordshire County
- Lincolnshire County
- Somerset County
- Surrey County
- Oxfordshire County
- Leicester City
- Leicestershire County
- Wiltshire
- Windsor & Maidenhead
- Tower Hamlets
- West Berkshire