In response to the floods that have affected Worcestershire in September, October and November 2024, the Council and Malvern Hills District Council have worked together to set up two flood recovery funds.

Malvern Hills District Council’s ‘Business Flood Recovery Grant - Storm Bert’ funding is available for every business within the Malvern Hills district that flooded in November. You can apply for the funding via this link: Malvern Hills Business Flood Recovery Grant - Storm Bert 2024 . 

Who can apply?

The grant is for:

• businesses within the Malvern Hills district that flooded in October, but did not flood in November*
• all other businesses in Worcestershire (i.e. those beyond the Malvern Hills district) that flooded in September, October, November or December 2024
• residential properties anywhere in Worcestershire that flooded in September, October or November 2024

* If your business is in the Malvern Hills district and it flooded in November, please apply to the ‘Malvern Hills Business Flood Recovery Grant - Storm Bert’ fund.

Eligibility

If the descriptions above match your situation you are invited to apply for funding, the grant is not means tested.

The property that has flooded must:

• be where you live or operate a business from, for at least ten months each year
• be where you pay council tax or business rates (as applicable)
• be for properties that are ‘normally occupied’ so, for example, garages, sheds and conservatories are not included
  • with exceptions such as basement utility rooms, garden offices or garages that have been converted to another use) we will assess on a case-by-case basis and may follow up with a request for further information

If you are in flats or a shared building then each flat or business owner who is able to show that flooding affected their place of residence or work can apply. 

Proprietors of domestic or business properties in Worcestershire that were vacant when flooded in September, October, November or December 2024, and whose property meets the criteria set out in the points above may apply.

Please note that only one payment can be made against any given occupancy of a property, and where that occupation is by tenants (either domestic or business), it will be the tenants who are eligible.

If you have had previous funding, including for flood resistance and resilience measures, you are still able to apply providing you meet the eligibility criteria.

Before applying

To apply, you must:

• provide us with your name and address
• provide us with bank or building society details (the payments will be made by BACS transfer)
  • we have compiled a record of all properties known to have flooded in September, October and November 2024 and will contact all property occupants thought to meet the eligibility criteria, inviting them to apply

Applications are welcome from those who have flooded but who haven’t been invited to apply, if this is you, you must:

• be able to prove that you have flooded (photographs of the flooding, or the damage caused will normally be sufficient)

Please read the further information below before applying.

Applications close on 24 January 2025.

Please note: this Recovery Support Grant has been created for the mitigation of the floods of September, October, November or December 2024, but this must not be taken to mean that a similar funding scheme can be created for any given future flooding occurrences, and nor can a successful application to this Recovery Support Grant be taken to mean that applications to any given future funding scheme will be successful.

Information for landlords, landladies and tenants

The support grant is aimed towards those who live in the house or those who operate the business and have thus suffered most directly. So, homeowners or tenants in rented houses, or those who operate a business in a rented property can apply. If a house or a business was empty at the time of the flood, landlords and landladies might be eligible for this funding.

Vacant properties

If your house or business was vacant for a clear reason at the time of flooding and it is your main residence, or if you are a landlord or landlady you can still apply. Reasons for the property being vacant that would be acceptable could include: to allow for renovation or repair work, for a change of tenant, for the lack of a tenant but with the property still on the rental market, or for moving home. 

If access to your property was cut-off during the flooding then you cannot apply as the grant is only eligible for flooding that has been inside the home or business.

Using your grant funding

There are no rules on what the grant can be used for, but if you are thinking about adding flood resistance or flood resilience measures to your property, we would strongly recommend you seek the advice of an expert.

‘Resistance’ measures aim to keep flood water out of the property whilst ‘resilience’ measures acknowledge that not all properties can be made water-tight and therefore aim to make the property quicker and easier to bring back into use after a flood.

There are pros and cons to both approaches. The National Flood Forum’s ‘Protect your property’ webpages are an excellent source of information on both approaches.