Lowestoft to get more than £43 million to protect against flooding
Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Kate Prout
The Suffolk coastal town of Lowestoft is to receive more than £43 million pounds to help protect against flooding.
It's part of £170 million being provided by the government to 22 "shovel-ready" flood defence projects across the country to protect homes, businesses and jobs.
In Lowestoft, the £43.5 million will deliver a tidal barrier and flood walls to protect key infrastructure and businesses and support offshore energy and tourism.
More than £3.2 million will also go towards flood risk management schemes in nearby Benacre and Kessingland.
The town's Conservative MP, Peter Aldous, said the cash was the single largest amount given to can flood scheme in the country and it would protect those homes and businesses that were devastated in the storm surge of 5 December 2013.
During that storm 158 homes and 233 commercial properties in Lowestoft and Oulton Broad were flooded and many people were made homeless and lost all their possessions.
The funding comes on top of a long term £5.2 billion package being set out by the Government, to construct around 2,000 new flood and coastal defences that will better protect 336,000 properties from flooding by 2027.
The £5.2 billion, which will protect thousands of key sites such as schools and hospitals and ensure existing defences are well maintained, will avoid £32 billion of wider economic damage from flooding, the Government said.
And an extra £200 million will be provided for innovative projects, such as creating sustainable urban drainage schemes or wetlands to store water and boost wildlife at the same time, which will be tested out in 25 at-risk areas.
The £5.2 billion investment, announced in the Budget in March, is for schemes from 2021. But the £170 million cash injection will help boost the economy as areas recover from the pandemic by starting work from this year on 22 projects, which are ready to go with help to reach required levels of funding.
As well as protecting homes, the projects will defend more than 10,000 local businesses and safeguard around 100,000 jobs that rely on those firms, the Government said.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said: "The devastating impacts of last winter's flooding were an important reminder of the need to continue to invest and accelerate action to reduce the impact of flooding on our communities.
"Our record investment and ambitious policies will better protect homes, schools, hospitals and businesses, but we also recognise that we cannot prevent flooding entirely, which is why we will ensure that communities at high risk are more resilient."