The scheme is usually set up in response to weather events, but can also be used to cover other circumstances. It is a discretionary scheme which exists to give special financial assistance to local authorities which would otherwise be faced with an undue financial burden as a result of providing relief and carrying out immediate work due to large-scale emergencies. Where the criteria of the scheme are met, the grant is normally payable to authorities at 85% of the eligible costs incurred above a threshold set for each authority, although occasionally the grant rate is increased to 100%. The scheme is named after a 1980s environment minister,
Lord Bellwin, who, as Irwin Bellow had been leader of
Leeds City Council from 1975 to 1979. In 1983, Bellwin introduced the compensation scheme, which was incorporated in the
Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and revised in 2014. A Bellwin scheme may be activated, at the discretion of the environment secretary, • when an emergency or disaster involving destruction of, or danger to, life or property occurs; • and, as a result, one or more local authorities incur expenditure on, or in connection with the taking of immediate action; • or to safeguard life or property or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience in a local authority's area or among its inhabitants. Councils,
police,
fire and
national park authorities are eligible for Bellwin reimbursement when they have spent more than the usual threshold 0.2% of their calculated annual revenue budget on works which meet the above criteria that have been reported to the Department as eligible for an announced grant scheme. ==Bellwin-like schemes under the devolved administrations of the United Kingdom==