• Boston & Skegness will benefit from £48,916,928.17 of investment over this financial year to help protect against flooding and coastal erosion.
• The funding comes as part of the Conservative Government’s £860 million investment to protect communities from flooding in 2021-22, and part of a wider record investment of £5.2 billion into protection from flooding and coastal erosion over the next six years.
• A consultation will also be launched in the autumn looking at how to better protect frequently flooded communities.

19,066 more homes and businesses in Boston & Skegness are to be better protected from flooding and coastal erosion by 2026-27, as part of new plans published by the Conservative Government alongside a £5.2 billion investment.

The Flood and Coastal Erosion Investment Plan outlines how this record £5.2 billion of investment over the next six years will be spent, including more than £860 million in 2021-22 on boosting the design and construction of more than 1,000 flooding alleviation schemes.

An investment of £32,657,923.88 over the financial year of 2021-22, as part of the £860 million worth of investment, will help to rapidly give greater protections to homes which are vulnerable to flooding and coastal erosion.

The funding will help to protect a total of 336,000 properties in England by 2026-2027, including 19,066 in Boston & Skegness, helping to avoid £32 billion in wider economic damages and reducing the national flood risk by up to 11 per cent across the country.

The funding will be accompanied by a consultation in the autumn, where the Government will look at how to better protect frequently flooded communities, following a call for evidence earlier this year.

It will consider how to strengthen the assessment of local circumstances, such as where areas have flooded on multiple occasions, when allocating funding during the six-year plan.

The Conservative Government is also bringing in tighter guidance for planning authorities as part of a package of actions to better protect and prepare communities for flooding.

Improvements to flood insurance such as measures to allow flooded households to claim extra money to install property flood resilience measures – like air brick covers, flood doors and flood resistant paint – and measures to tackle the risks from surface water flooding are also included in the plans.

Commenting, Matt Warman said:

“Flooding can devastate communities – too many homes and families in Boston & Skegness have sadly fallen victim to this, and so we must put the necessary protections in place to tackle it.

“The £48,916,928.17 to protect 19,066 homes in Boston & Skegness will help to deliver on this by boosting the design and construction of flood alleviation schemes and putting the necessary measures in place to protect homes from flooding and coastal erosion.

“This will help to guard homes and families from the devastating impact of flooding, allowing people to feel reassured about the safety of their home.”

Commenting, Environment Secretary George Eustice said:

“The tragic recent events in Germany and Belgium serve as a sobering reminder of how devastating flooding can be.

“We are standing by communities and will bolster defences against flooding across England with many thousands more properties better protected by 2027.

“It’s important we take action right across the system. Our comprehensive plan will achieve this by tightening planning procedures, helping more people access insurance and making homes more resilient to flooding.”

Notes to editors:

• We are investing over £860 million into flood alleviation schemes in 2021-22 alone and introducing a range of measures to better protect homes from flooding and coastal erosion in the coming years. We are investing in boosting the design and construction of more than 1,000 flooding alleviation schemes across England, as well as publishing our Flood and Coastal Erosion Investment Plan, launching a consultation looking at how to better protect frequently flooded communities, and bringing in tighter guidance for planning authorities to better protect and prepare communities for flooding.
• We are doubling investment in flood defences and coastal erosion schemes during the next six-year investment period. We announced at Budget that £5.2 billion will be invested in flood defences between 2021-27. This is double the previous flood and coastal defence programme and will protect 336,000 homes, as well as many farms and businesses (HMT, Budget 2020, 12 March 2020).