Flood-stricken farmers offered more financial help

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced £12m of new funding to help areas affected by the devastating floods.

An extra £5.8m will be made available to support households and business properties, including dozens of farms, affected by flooding in Scotland.

The funding will be used by local authorities to provide every household, business premises or charity directly affected by floodwaters with a grant of £1,500.

See also: Farming flood recovery fund area and deadline extended

In addition, an Agricultural Floodbank Restoration Grant Scheme of up to £1m will also be made available to the farming community to seek financial support to restore damaged floodbanks.

NFU Scotland president Allan Bowie visited three flood-ravaged farms in Perthshire on Friday (8 January) to see the devastation caused by the floods.

He said: “The damage seen on Scottish farms up and down the country has been extensive and the job of restoring flood banks and clearing up the debris will be costly and time consuming.

“The full picture will not be known until the waters recede but it goes without saying that, for a good number of farmers, the effects will be felt for much longer.”

Mr Bowie will hold talks with Scottish government and officials from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) in the coming days to discuss measures that can be taken to better protect houses, businesses and farmland from flooding in the future.

“Farmers are only able to apply once for the fund, so it is important when making a claim that all affected areas are included on the application and the form is filled in correctly”
Richard Taylor, Strutt & Parker

In England, Defra has set up the Farming Recovery Fund to provide money to help farmers in Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire whose agricultural land has been affected by floods.

Grants of between £500 and a maximum of £20,000 are available to affected farmers.

Richard Taylor, partner at Strutt & Parker’s Northallerton Office, said: “Farmers are only able to apply once for the fund, so it is important when making a claim that all affected areas are included on the application and the form is filled in correctly.

“The good news is that the government has issued good clear guidance and application forms, and the recovery fund sets out fair compensation payment rates for claimable costs to help those affected.

“However, the Rural Payments Agency has indicated that it wants to receive all applications by email and perhaps too much assumption has been made that those affected will be able to get online to access the forms or email.”

The application window is open until Friday 1 April 2016.

Works need to be completed and the grant claimed for by the 30 December 2016.

More information is available on the government’s main website

The Welsh government has already announced £1m funding for flood-ravaged businesses in north Wales.

Since the floods first hit farms in December, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution  has paid out £31,000 to flood victims in Cumbria.

Applications from farm businesses affected by flooding or storm damage in the north of England – including regions such as Lancashire, Yorkshire and Northumberland as well as Cumbria – are still being fast-tracked.

Meanwhile, the Prince’s Countryside Fund grant programme has announced £718,000 of funding in 2016 for projects to help more than 1,000 farm businesses.

This new funding comes in addition to the monies already distributed from The Prince’s Countryside Emergency Flood Appeal in December 2015.