Farming Recovery Fund extended

Farmers hit by Storm Eva flooding in Lancashire and Yorkshire will receive emergency funding of up to £20,000 each Environment Secretary, Elizabeth Truss, has announced. The Farming Recovery Fund, originally launched to help farmers hit by Storm Desmond in Cumbria, Northumberland and parts of Lancashire, has been extended to farmers in all the areas affected by storms over Christmas and Boxing Day.

Farmers affected by flooding are able to claim grants of between £500 and £20,000 to cover the cost of restoring their farmland. This includes:

• the restoration of productive stock proof grassland
• the restoration of productive arable and horticultural land
• the restoration of field access or track ways, fencing or gates or water troughs
• the restoration of drainage on flood-damaged holdings
• damage to agricultural machinery that cannot be insured
• damage to agricultural buildings that cannot be insured
• funding would include re-siting or re-location on the basis of improved positioning away from river edges, raising parapets or relocating to a less vulnerable access point in the field.