Grants of up to £5,000 are being made available to help Cornish households and businesses pay for repairs to help withstand future flooding.

Cornwall Council has welcomed the Minister for Floods announcement on the launch of the new 'Repair and Renew' grants.

Edwina Hannaford, cabinet member for environment, said: “Cornwall was hit very hard by the storms and floods earlier this year and have left many people struggling to cope physically and financially.

"Cornwall’s communities are incredibly resilient and these new grants will help them to make their homes and business premises more prepared for severe weather and flooding in the future.

“There are a number of schemes available to help people whose properties have been damaged by flooding and I’m very pleased that people can now apply for help from the Repair and Renew scheme as well.”

Households, businesses - including social enterprises - and charitable organisations whose premises have been damaged internally by flooding between 1 December 2013 and 31 March 2014 can now apply to Cornwall Council for assistance through the new, one off, grant scheme.

To be able to qualify for a grant, the flooded property will need to meet certain criteria including: • The interior of the applicant’s home or business premises must have been damaged by flooding between December 2013 and March 2014

• The grants are to help households and businesses pay for repairs to improve their property's ability to withstand future flooding

• The applicant must not have received other sources of public or insurance funding to establish the same resilience measures applied for e.g. from the Property Level Protection scheme

• Grant claims can only be made once an installation has been fully completed and contractors have been paid.

Advice on on selecting the most appropriate resilience and/or resistance measures is available on the Property Protection Adviser website: http://nationalfloodforum.org.uk/property-level-protection-community-tool/

More information about the Repair and Renew grants, and other schemes available to help people affected by flooding, is on the Cornwall Council website www.cornwall.gov.uk/floodrelief.