(Bloomberg) — The UK will spend £2.65 billion ($3.31 billion) on flood defenses to protect homes from the growing risks posed by climate-fueled storms and rainfall, according to a government announcement on Tuesday.
The investment on upgrading and repairing flood infrastructure will be spent by March next year on projects including improved tidal barriers and river and sea defenses.
In recent years a growing number of strong storms has highlighted the difficulty of protecting homes and people from increasingly intense rainfall and rising sea levels. At the same time, the government has pledged to build thousands of new homes, loosen planning rules and invest in infrastructure to fuel economic growth. These plans risk facing soaring insurance costs and flood destruction without careful consideration. Some 8% of new homes have been built in flood-risk areas over the past decade.
Extreme weather is costing the economy billions of pounds every year, the government said. The UK’s Environment Agency says 6.3 million properties in England are at risk from flooding.
Some 66,500 properties will be better protected by these upgraded defenses, the government said. Projects to be funded by the investment include a tidal barrier in Bridgwater, Somerset; a coastal project in Dorset, on England’s south coast; and flood defenses to protect the town of Bewdley, in England’s West Midlands, from flooding on the River Severn.
Toby Perkins, the Labour MP who chairs the environmental audit committee, said the funding was just “the tip of the iceberg” because it only protects a small fraction of the homes at risk.
He said measures like rewilding and wetland creation would create natural flood barriers. “Plastering over the cracks by making extensive use of flood defenses is not a sustainable long-term approach to increasing flood risk,” he said.
The funding, which was previously mentioned in the ruling Labour Party’s autumn Budget but without detail about specific projects and priorities, supersedes a program of investment launched by the previous Conservative government which had promised £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027. Around £2.1 billion was spent in the first two years of that program, government data shows.
“The impact of flooding on our communities will only become greater as climate change brings more extreme weather,” said Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell.
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