Local government secretary Robert Jenrick MP has activated the Bellwin scheme, providing emergency financial assistance for councils affected by Storm Dennis.
Under the scheme, local authorities dealing with the impact of the storm can apply to have 100% of the eligible costs they incur, over and above a threshold, reimbursed by the government.
Each authority is given its own threshold and claims must relate directly to the impact of the storm.
The draft terms state: ‘Before being eligible for grant, an individual local authority is required to have spent 0.2% of its calculated annual budget (threshold) on works that have been reported to the Department as eligible for grant.’
A communities department spokeswoman said the last Bellwin guidance to be published was in 2017/18 and should be seen as general guidance, as bespoke terms are issued for each individual scheme.
The scheme has been activated for qualifying areas in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
There are 5 severe flood warnings around River Teme in #Worcestershire and River Wye in #Herefordshire - plus hundreds of other flood warnings across England. Stay safe and check your flood risk: https://t.co/6sQvhutQ0p #StormDennis #flooding #floods pic.twitter.com/DJpyAj9pO9
— Environment Agency (@EnvAgency) February 17, 2020
The news follows The Environment Agency issuing a record number of flood warnings over the weekend, including at one point a reported six severe flood warnings in England and Wales - meaning there is danger to life.
Mr Jenrick MP said: 'I’d like to praise the work of all emergency responders this weekend as well as local authorities and key agencies for working around the clock to keep us safe.
'The government is doing everything it can to ensure communities are supported in recovering from flood damage, and by activating our emergency financial assistance scheme, we are making sure that those places hit the hardest will be able to access funding to help them deal with the aftermath of the storm.'
More than 900 Environment Agency staff are on active incident duty and teams have put up more than 3.5km of temporary flood barriers across the country, the MHCLG said.
BREAKING: we now have the most flood warnings and alerts in force (594) in England than any other day on record. Stay safe and updated here https://t.co/K5GUW3z87V pic.twitter.com/0IEdWBAOpi
— John Curtin (@johncurtinEA) February 16, 2020
