Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis has announced a further funding package of £6.7 million for local authorities affected by recent flooding and severe weather.

Since the east coast tidal surge in December, severe weather and flooding has caused a significant amount of damage to housing, businesses, agriculture and transport infrastructure across the country. The recovery funding is intended to assist with the repairs.

The money builds on financial assistance already made available to councils via activation of the Bellwin scheme in December. The scheme enables councils to apply for financial assistance depending on local circumstances and compensates councils retrospectively for the exceptional costs incurred. Ministers have said that they would look sympathetically on councils where they have costs as a result of the floods, and that they would reimburse councils eligible for clearing-up expenditure under the Bellwin scheme.

The Government said it is spending over £2.3 billion on tackling the risk of flooding and coastal erosion.The Government has also pointed out that local authorities received £3.4 billion from the Department for Transport between 2011 and 2015 for local highway maintenance, including flood damage to roads.

The costs of repairing flood defences damaged by the extreme weather are currently being assessed, by the Department for, Food and Rural Affairs and will be set out shortly.

Half the extra funding is from the Department for Communities and Local Government, which will be allocated to areas with properties affected by flooding and allocated through normal funding mechanisms.

The remainder from the Department for Transport will be available to repair infrastructure damaged by flooding and will be subject to a bidding process. Further details of the package and how local authorities can apply will be announced shortly.