£500,000 flood pilot scheme announced.

More than 170 mainly residential properties in Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and East Sussex will be involved in the flood resilience pilot
scheme, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been announced.

Ian Pearson, minister for climate change and environment, said: “Due to the impacts of climate change flooding is an ever increasing risk that people need to be protected from.

“These areas have a range of different properties and flooding types which will enable us to test different approaches to reducing the risk and administering grants.

“Further pilot areas will be considered shortly. Information from the pilots, together with a parallel research project, will help us take a long term decision on whether such a grant scheme would be used in the future to protect people from flooding.”

Funding up to a maximum of £5,000 for each property will be targeted at measures to stop water getting into the home.

These will include outside defences such as door guards and external render and internal measures such to minimise damage, including waterproof wall plaster, concrete tiled floors and raised electrics.

Experts say these measures can prevent major damage and allow residents to return to normal life quickly without having to replace floors and fittings.

The Environment Agency and other partners chose the areas after flood risk analysis.

Proposals for a second £100,000 scheme were invited in May. A decision is due shortly.

Some 470,000 properties in England and Wales are at risk of flooding, including 393,000 homes – a figure the government says is likely to increase with climate change.

The pilot areas are: