IDB Winter Resilience Fund

The Environment Agency has announced an £8 million IDB Winter Resilience Fund for 2026/27.

The Fund will accept applications from 12 November until 23.59 on 11 December 2026 for projects that can be delivered by 31 March 2027.

This is a new, one-off fund utilising remaining funding available this financial year from the IDB Storm Recovery & Asset Improvement Fund (2024-26). This new fund builds on the success of those previously funded projects, by supporting IDBs to deliver both capital and resource (operational) projects during 2026/27 only, reducing flood risk and better managing water levels within England’s lowland landscapes.

The Fund is open to capital and resource projects, with:

• a maximum of two applications per IDB;
• funding of between £30,000 and £600,000 per application (projects outside of these thresholds will be considered)
• all funded activity to be delivered by 31 March 2027.

Eligible activities include: FCERM asset and infrastructure improvements (including sustainability measures), incident response capability improvements, lowland drainage network improvements, data and intelligence improvements, sediment management, watercourse maintenance activities, FCERM asset maintenance, and in-channel structure maintenance or removal.

ADA and the Environment Agency recognise that this is a very short timeframe for both application and delivery. The IDB Winter Resilience Fund team at the EA are therefore available to support IDBs with any queries (contact: IDBWRfund@environment-agency.gov.uk). The Expression of Interest (EOI) process is very similar to the previous IDB Fund and should therefore be familiar to applicants.

The EA are hosting an online question and answer session for IDBs on 01 December 2027. IDBs will recieve an invitation to the online session shortly.

 

---