The Chair of the Local Government Association, Cllr Louise Gittins, writes to Defra Minister Emma Hardy and MHCLG Minister Alex Norris about the impact of severe flooding in early January 2025 and the support available to local authorities, residents and businesses.
To: Emma Hardy MP, Minister for Water and Flooding
Alex Norris MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Local Growth and Building Safety)
27 January 2025
Dear Ministers,
The winter of 2025-2026 has brought severe weather and devastation to many communities through a combination of exceptionally high levels of rainfall, snow and strong winds. The Environment Agency reports that 1,400 properties have been flooded since 31 December 2024 and the true number is likely to be much higher once local sources of data are taken into account. Manchester declared a major incident on New Year’s Day due to severe flooding, with the extreme levels of rain causing major problems for infrastructure including part of the bank of the Bridgewater Canal collapsing. Exceptional rainfall in early January caused more problems with flooding not just to homes, but also requiring schools to be evacuated. We want to work with you and key partners including the Environment Agency to ensure that the national and local emergency response directs resources quickly to where they are most needed.
Councils are on the frontline of action in severe weather and play a vital role in keeping residents safe and informed, and supporting their recovery from flooding. They need clear information on what help will be available after the recent severe weather, and residents and businesses are understandably looking to their local council to help them access grants and support. After the severe flooding of recent days government should formally activate emergency funding streams including the flood recovery framework. The Bellwin scheme should be opened, but if this is not supported by your analysis of the data we would like to work with you to assess the cumulative cost of extraordinary weather over recent months, or to secure other routes for emergency support. In our view, the combination of snow and serious flooding in recent days makes this an urgent necessity.
The Bellwin Scheme should provide financial support for councils to cover the immediate cost of extraordinary weather events. Councils tell us that they struggle to access funding through this route noting:
- The challenge of meeting the criteria. A council may not spend enough in a single weather event to reach the spending threshold to quality for support through the Bellwin Scheme. However, over a winter of repeated severe weather events council spending may easily exceed the threshold.
- The application process itself is complicated, and this is a burden on councils are a time when they are dealing with queries from residents in severe distress.
We need greater flexibility and transparency from government funding support schemes. Funding mechanisms designed for “once in every ten years” flooding events are not fit for purpose, and the financial pressures on local government have an impact on their ability to address issues such as flooding as much as they’d like.
A growing concern for local government is the growing number of residents and businesses that are not insuring themselves against flooding due to the prohibitive cost of premiums. Properties that have been flooded, or are located in a high-risk area can see insurance costs rising to unaffordable levels, in a time of already squeezed budgets. This is placing further strain on local resources and we want to work with government and the insurance industry to find a solution.
We welcome urgent confirmation of the support available to local government, residents and communities and an opportunity to discuss the issues raised in this letter.
Yours sincerely
Cllr Louise Gittins
Chair, Local Government Association