Increase Flood Resilience with Natural Flood Management Funding – Apply by 10/11/23

Natural Flood Management uses natural processes to reduce the risk of flooding. These measures protect, restore, and mimic the natural functions of catchments, floodplains and the coast to slow and store water and dissipate wave energy

Apply by 10 November 2023.

What is the Natural Flood Management Programme?

In September 2023, the government announced £25 million funding for improving flood resilience through a new Natural Flood Management (NFM) programme. The Environment Agency is leading the management of this programme.

This programme encourages people and places to make greater use of nature-based solutions, to enhance flood and coast resilience and nature recovery. The NFM programme will help meet the aims of the:

government’s policy statement on flooding and coastal erosion
national Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England and the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy Roadmap to 2026
government’s Environmental Improvement Plan

What are the aims of the programme?

The NFM programme aims to:

reduce local flood risk using NFM
provide wider benefits to the environment, nature and society
accelerate new and existing opportunities for NFM delivery and financing
further improve evidence of NFM by filling knowledge gaps

Evidence and learning about NFM delivery, and its effectiveness, has grown significantly over recent years through a number of initiatives. Some benefits that this NFW programme will provide, is that it aims to improve understanding of:

the flood risk reduction benefits of different types of NFM
how different NFM measures can best work together to maximise flood risk benefits
how effective NFM is at different spatial scales
the effectiveness of NFM in different types of geography, geology and land uses
the carbon sequestration benefits of NFM
the water quality benefits of NFM
the benefits of NFM to ecology and biodiversity

Who can apply?

Any legal person or other legal entity can apply as the lead applicant.

Likely lead applicants include:

flood risk management authorities (RMAs)
farmers, land managers and landowners
third sector organisations including environmental Non-Governmental Organisations – for example river trusts and wildlife trusts
businesses
community groups
catchment partnerships

The lead applicant needs to be based in England, but any partners and benefits of the project can extend into Wales or Scotland.

Partnership applications are encouraged, with a lead applicant coordinating delivery on the ground across multiple sites and landowners.

Why apply?

Natural solutions can provide wider benefits including:

enhancing habitats and biodiversity
improving water quality and availability of drinking water
carbon capture
boosting health and wellbeing

What are the requirements?

To receive funding a project must:

provide one or more eligible NFM measures
demonstrate a flood risk benefit in England
provide value for money
be consistent with existing flood and coast plans – for example local flood risk management strategies, flood risk management plans and shoreline management plans
undertake project monitoring in compliance with our NFM Programme Monitoring Requirements
have maintenance plans in place

What types of projects does the fund support?

Projects that carry out one or more of the NFM measures listed below, are sought. These can be in either rural, urban, or sub-urban settings.

Soil and land management
River and floodplain management
Woodland management
Run-off management
Coast and estuary management

What can I apply for?

You can apply for one standalone project or a package of inter-linked projects across a catchment or along a coast.

Each project must include one or more eligible NFM measures.

The £25 million programme is expected to fund around 100 projects of varying size and cost.

However, standalone projects are anticipated to be around £200k and packages of projects to be up to £2.5m.

Projects need to be value for money and demonstrate a flood risk benefit.

Where should my project take place?

All projects should deliver flooding benefits in England.

To demonstrate a flood risk benefit, NFM measures will need to be located near to a place at risk of flooding.

Funding of the programme?

Costs will be funded by the £25 million NFM grant in aid.

Once the Expressions Of Interest (EOI) are assessed, it will then be decided how much funding will be allocated each project or package of projects. This will be informed by the costs provided in your EOI.

EOIs should assume that the programme will pay for the following project costs:

development
project management
monitoring and capital costs
it will not pay for future and on-going maintenance

What are the timescales?

Stage 1 – develop your Expression Of Interest (EOI), this stage will remain open for 7 weeks from 22 September 2023 to 10 November 2023.
Stage 2 – assessment, this stage is likely to last approximately 8 weeks from early November 2023 to early January 2023.
Stage 3 – announcement, a public announcement of the successful projects is expected to be announced by the Government in early 2024.
Stage 4 – project development, this stage is likely to last approximately 8 months from February 2024 to September 2024.
Stage 5 – project implementation, this stage is likely to last approximately 2 ½ years from October 2024 to March 2027.

Project reporting
There will be a requirement for projects to report regularly on progress throughout this time, participants and their partners are expected to share knowledge and learning.