Property flood resilience grant

The government uses the Flood Recovery Framework to make funding available to communities following specific storm events that result in severe flooding. One of the elements of this framework is the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Grant which the government requires Suffolk County Council to administer on their behalf.

The council is administering the PFR Grant application process for properties affected by Storm Babet in October 2023. The following has been prepared as a brief summary to outline the government guidelines of the scheme.

Who can apply for this funding?

Grants are only available to people who suffered internal flood damage to their homes or businesses during Storm Babet (between 19-25 October 2023). They are in addition to grants and Council Tax/Business Rate discounts that may have been received from District Councils. Eligible property owners can apply for up to £5,000 (including VAT) to help make their property more resilient to future flooding. Properties that have already reported flooding via the Highways Reporting Tool and have been determined as potentially eligible by the Council for this grant will be contacted directly via letter or email with detail about how to apply.

All property owners that wish to apply for the grant will require a survey to be carried out by an independent, qualified building surveyor (must be independent from any company that installs PFR measures) who has completed the following training: CIWEM PFR Foundation Training.

The PRF survey needs to include recommend measures that will increase the property’s resilience to future flooding. Government rules state that only up to £800 of the total grant can be used to contribute towards survey costs. You will need to share this survey with the Council as part of a grant application – only measures recommended within the survey can be included in a grant claim.

The grant can only be used for resilience measures that are in addition to any reinstatement that is covered by insurance claims – the funded PFR measures must either keep water from entering a property or reduce the damage water can do once it enters a property (see Next Steps below for more explanation and guidance)

Property owners will be responsible for finding a suitable contractor to carry out works. Grants of up to £5,000 incl. VAT (including survey costs) will be paid retrospectively to the property owner, once the Council receives proof of the completed installation and invoicing for the approved measures.

Eligibility

Properties must have been damaged internally by flood waters between the dates of 19 and 25 October 2023, and subsequently required drying out or repairs to the fabric of the building. Properties will need to have reported this damage to Suffolk County Council via the Highways Reporting Tool by end of December 2023.

Eligible properties are:

• Residential properties, including static caravans if they are the property owner’s primary residence
• Business properties where internal areas which are critical to the day-to-day operations of the business were affected
• Properties owned by local authorities who act as the landlord
• Holiday lets that are operated as a business, where non-domestic rates are paid
• Bed and Breakfast properties where the owner lives on site as their primary residence and pays domestic or non-domestic rates or both
• Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) or blocks of flats, which will be considered as one property

Non-eligible properties include:

• Garages, outhouses or storage areas
• Second homes
• Empty homes
• Basements or cellars not used as part of the habitable or business area of the property
• Holiday cottages which are not part of a commercial enterprise and are not the principal residence of the owner
• Properties that received property flood resilience grants in 2013/14, 2015/16, November 2019 and February 2020

Next Steps

All properties that have been reported to the Council and been determined as potentially eligible will receive a direct communication via letter or email.

If you would like to understand more about the potential measures that this grant may be able to fund and what the cost of these may be, we can suggest visiting the National Flood Forum website. This national charity provides a large amount of information about property level protection, including: a step by step guide to installation, the Blue Pages - information about qualified contractors and the kite marked materials.

The Property Protection Advisor – is a helpful tool that uses national data about properties and flood risk that you can customise for your house to identify potential PFR options and likely costs. We suggest you use this tool to better understand what this grant may be able to fund before engaging a surveyor.

BeFloodReady is another website with helpful information and videos to help you understand how to make your home more resistant to flood water and resilient to the impact it can have.

Free PFR training for homeowners – you can sign up to the Chartered Institution for Water and Environmental Management who are offering a free 10 hour training module for homeowners who suffered flooding during Storm Babet. You will learn how to prepare for future events and better protect your property.

If you have any questions, please email: floodgrants@suffolk.gov.uk