Scotland is launching a £5 million community flood resilience fund: what households should know

Scotland is creating a new £5 million Community Flood Resilience Fund, with money due to start flowing in 2027. The funding is aimed at communities and councils rather than individual households, but it could pay for practical local measures that reduce flood risk and improve preparedness.

The Scottish Government announced the fund on 23 September 2026 as part of a wider £15 million package for flood prevention and resilience. Of the £5 million community fund, £1 million will be available for direct community applications and £4 million will go to local authorities applying with communities to deliver local flood resilience measures.

The government has not yet published the detailed application criteria or timetable, so households cannot apply now. From 2027, community groups and councils in flood-prone areas will have a new way to fund local resilience work.

Read the Scottish Government announcement.

What the funding is for

The fund is part of a wider programme to improve how Scotland prepares for and manages flooding over the next four years.

Alongside the £5 million community fund, the Scottish Government says £2.5 million will be available to local authorities to strengthen existing public assets and resilience infrastructure. A further £3 million is intended for projects that use nature-based approaches to reduce flood risk, such as planting and landscape design that can help manage rainfall and water flow.

Up to £1 million is also being set aside for coastal projects, including work to replenish sand dunes, while £500,000 will support communities recovering from recent flooding.

The funding sits alongside Scotland’s new National Flood Resilience Strategy Implementation Plan, published on the same day. The plan sets out 65 actions for government, public bodies, councils, communities and other organisations over the next four years.

Read the National Flood Resilience Strategy Implementation Plan.

Can households apply?

Not on the information published so far.

The Scottish Government says £1 million will be for direct community applications, while £4 million will be for local authorities applying with communities. The fund is built around local groups and partnerships, not grants to individual households.

Detailed eligibility rules, application dates and the types of projects that will qualify have not yet been published. They will decide whether existing community resilience groups, charities, residents’ groups or other local organisations can apply directly.

If you live somewhere with a history of flooding, find out whether there is already a community resilience group in your area, or whether your council is involved in a local flood-risk plan. Ready Scotland encourages communities to organise locally as part of wider emergency preparedness.

Ready Scotland household and community preparedness guidance.

What households can do now

The fund does not change what households should do for themselves. Ready Scotland advises people in areas at risk of flooding to check their local flood risk, consider insurance cover, make a flood plan and prepare a flood kit. SEPA also publishes flood-risk information and local flood management plans covering communities across Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s implementation plan says work is already under way on a behaviourally informed Household Flood Plan template, to help people understand what to do if flooding is likely where they live.

For people with disabilities, medical needs or caring responsibilities, a flood plan may also need to cover accessible evacuation, medicines, mobility equipment, backup power, pets or assistance animals, and how support would continue if roads or services were disrupted. Build any household plan around the people who live there.

What happens next

The new plan includes community preparedness, local infrastructure, nature-based measures and support for people recovering from flooding. From 2027, local flood work may be easier to fund, particularly where residents, community groups and councils can point to a specific local problem and tackle it together.

There is nothing to apply for yet. Until the detailed fund guidance is published, flood-prone communities can get to know their existing local flood-risk arrangements and make household plans.