The Farming Recovery Fund – explained

After more than 10 months of delays, confusion, and radio silence, funding through the Farming Recovery Fund will reach farmers across England this month. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is sending out letters and emails to those eligible for funding, which covers uninsured damage and disruption from flooding in 2023/24.

This grant scheme is not available to apply for – recipients have been identified based on mapping of the flood extents. Please check emails for authenticity and read the RPA guidance here. If in any doubt, contact the RPA.

The fund is a grant to cover some of the costs of restoring farmland following severe flooding. It is offered in recognition that flood-related farm losses are typically uninsured and have substantial impacts on business cashflow. However, to minimise administrative costs, Defra is not requiring evidenced claims of uninsured damage, and is instead making area-based payments. The fund has been sporadically offered in the past decade following exceptionally wet weather, at the discretion of the environment secretary.

In April 2024, Defra announced that only farmland within 150m of a named main river flooded during Storm Henk (2-12 January 2024) would be eligible for the Farming Recovery Fund – restricting payment to farmers in nine counties. The CLA successfully lobbied the government that this was arbitrary and unfair.

On 24 May, the government committed to removing the 150m limit, expanding the grant’s geographical scope, and extending it to cover damage from extreme rainfall, but the scheme was put on hold due to the general election.

Following the Labour government’s budget on 30 October, the revised terms of the Farming Recovery Fund have been published. It will be offered to those with land flooded during Storm Babet (19-25 October 2023) and Storm Henk, and/or those with land that experienced exceptionally wet weather between October 2023 and March 2024. The payment terms have also changed.

The full eligibility criteria are not published and we do not have a map of land offered the grant. The only way to determine whether you are eligible is to wait for a letter or email from the RPA. If none arrive but you experienced flooding, you should contact the RPA to enquire about possible eligibility. You cannot apply for this grant.

The government has published a high-level summary of its methodology used to identify eligible areas. It used satellite data and river gauge readings to identify “the land where the river flooding impacts were most severe” during storms Babet and Henk. Rainfall data from the Met Office was used to identify local authority areas where at least half of the area experienced rainfall at more than 70% above the 30-year average rainfall for the October-March period.

The UK Government then applied a scaling factor to reflect uncertainty about where the rainfall events actually happened within the local authority area. The two total were added together to find eligible hectares per farm, subtracting any overlapping area.

Land which is agreed with the Environment Agency as a dedicated flood storage area is not eligible.

The Conservative government allocated £50m to the scheme, although had only managed to distribute £2.1m of this. The Labour government has bolstered the fund with £10m to bring the total to £60m, which they expect to cover grants for 13,000 farms.

When first announced in April, the payment was made at £130 per eligible hectare. Now, the payment will be made at a series of flat rates, as shown in the table below, regardless of where you fall within the band. The average grant payment is expected to be around £5,000 per eligible farm.

The government has retained the £130/ha payment rate for bands above 25 ha, but is offering a higher rate for smaller flooded areas.

You do not need to provide any evidence of having been flooded to receive the payment, or submit any claims forms. Follow the steps in the letter or email that you received from the RPA to enable them to make payment.

If you are concerned an email may be fraudulent, check the email address against the following official addresses on this GOV.UK webpage, and follow the advice on dealing with fraud which the government provides. Check the quoted field parcel references for accuracy. Contact the RPA before authorising payment if you are unsure about the authenticity of any requests, e.g., for bank details. CLA advisers can assist if you are still uncertain.

If you were not flooded and are confused about why you have been deemed eligible, you can call or email the RPA using the contact details provided in the letter or email.

The Farming Recovery Fund is offered at the minister’s choice, so future rounds are not guaranteed. The £60m total spend on the scheme this year is unprecedented; spend previously averaged about £10m per flood year. Defra has emphasised that this fund is “an exceptional, one-off contribution”, so you should not rely on it being available next year.

The CLA is advocating for a more sustainable solution to exceptional weather compensation. This includes lobbying for a new, long-term contract in which government would pay landowners to store floodwaters on land, fairly reflecting the costs of capital works, annual maintenance, income foregone, and depreciation in land value. In return, downstream taxpayers would receive greater protection from flooding. A new contract is likely to take substantial time to develop, so in the meantime, we encourage members to explore Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme options, particularly the new Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship options expected to become available next year.