Labour is set to spend a record £7.9bn to protect “hundreds of thousands of homes, small businesses, and vital infrastructure” from the growing threat of flooding in an announcement later this week.   

The UK will use a series of measures over the next decade, ranging from man-made flood barriers to wetland restoration, says the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs 

Homes on flood-risk planes can face higher mortgages, or in some cases, be refused home loans from lenders. 

Insurers paid out a record £585m for weather-related damage to homes and possessions last year, according to the latest data from the Association of British Insurers in February.  

This was the highest amount of damage to homes from windstorms, flooding and frozen pipes since the body began to collect this data in 2017. The previous record was £508m of claims in 2022. 

Every £1 spent on flood defences is expected to prevent around £8 in economic damage, “meaning significant savings for public services, such as the NHS and schools,” adds the Environment department. 

The announcement is expected to be confirmed when the government releases its 10-year infrastructure plan this week. 

Environment secretary Steve Reed says: “Protecting citizens is the first duty of any government. Yet we inherited crumbling flood defences in their worst condition on record – exposing thousands of homes. 

“Under the plan for change, this government is taking urgent action with the largest flooding programme in our country’s history.” 

In last week’s spending review, the government confirmed that £4.2bn will be spent on the UK’s flooding programme over the next three years to 2029, which will focus on “capital and resources such as building new defences and repairing and maintaining existing ones”.