We were commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), along with the University of West of England and Middlesex University Flood Hazard Research Centre to carry out an evaluation of Defra’s Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair grant scheme.
The PFR scheme offers grants up to £5000 to homes and businesses, identified by local authorities (LAs), that contributes to installing property level ‘resilience measures’ for properties that have been flooded. It may be activated by central government following severe flooding events that impact multiple LAs.
Our evaluation offers a timely update as the scheme has not been evaluated since its inception in winter 2013/2014, and there have been very few pieces of research that evaluate the benefit of PFR installations under the scheme.
PFR can support homes and businesses in managing the impact that flooding has on their property and their lives, helping meet the UK Government’s aim to make the country more resilient to flooding. It focuses on preventing water entry (resistance measures) and minimising damage when water does enter (recoverability measures). Together, these measures can be understood as ‘resilience measures’.
This report presents the findings from the evaluation which had two overarching research questions:
- How effective are processes employed for delivering the Government PFR repair schemes in 2019 and 2020 (e.g., administration by councils, cost of the process, skills, evaluation, timing, and alignment with insurance claims)?
- What is the impact of the scheme in council areas that have previously received PFR grants under this scheme (in 2013/14 or 2015/16) and have flooded since?
We worked with the Defra team and stakeholders such as LAs and PFR professionals to develop a theory of change (ToC) about how the scheme works in practice and leads to desired outcomes. We then carried out interviews and focus groups with local authority staff running schemes, contractors, local groups and residents, and used a survey to flood affected residents to evaluate impact.
A set of 22 recommendations in our report focused on improving the effectiveness of the PFR repair grant scheme delivery process and its impact. Recommendations ranged from improving clarity and communications about the scheme to improving local data collection on flood prevalence, and ensuring Defra offers strong support to LAs delivering the scheme.
