Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding
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Summary
<p>The Lincolnshire constituency held by Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right Reform...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-constituency-of-reforms-climate-sceptic-richard-tice-gets-55m-flood-funding/">Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org">Carbon Brief</a>.</p>
<p>The Lincolnshire constituency held by Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right Reform party, has been pledged at least £55m in government funding for flood defences since 2024.</p>
<p>This investment in Boston and Skegness is the second-largest sum for a single constituency from a £1.4bn flood-defence fund for England, Carbon Brief analysis shows.</p>
<p>Flooding is becoming <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-are-uk-floods-becoming-worse-due-to-climate-change/">more likely</a> and more extreme in the UK due to climate change.</p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7973/flood-defences/news/199357/flood-resilience-eroded-by-poorly-maintained-defences-with-government-in-the-dark-on-progress/">for years</a>, governments have <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/progress-in-adapting-to-climate-change-2025/">failed to spend</a> enough on flood defences to protect people, properties and infrastructure.</p>
<p>The £1.4bn fund is part of the current Labour government’s wider pledge to invest a “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hundreds-of-thousands-of-homes-and-businesses-to-benefit-from-largest-flood-defence-investment-programme-in-history#:~:text=In%20the%20Spending%20Review%2C%20the,repairing%20and%20maintaining%20existing%20ones.">record</a>” £7.9bn over a decade on protecting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses from flooding.</p>
<p>As MP for one of England’s <a href="https://www.axa.co.uk/newsroom/media-releases/2024/new-axa-uk-research-reveals-areas-of-england--most-vulnerable-to-extreme-weather/">most flood-prone</a> regions, Tice has <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2125294/reform-uk-warns-fens-flooding">called</a> for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.</p>
<p>He is also one of Reform’s most vocal <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/31/factcheck-no-richard-tice-volcanoes-are-not-to-blame-for-climate-change">opponents</a> of climate action and what he calls “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62k75qp1edo">net stupid zero</a>”. He <a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1891102109715624099">denies</a> the scientific consensus on climate change and has claimed, falsely and without evidence, that scientists are “lying”.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Flood defences </h2>
<p>Last year, the government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-investment-to-protect-thousands-of-uk-homes-and-businesses">said</a> it would invest £2.65bn on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes">flood and coastal erosion risk management</a> (FCERM) schemes in England between April 2024 and March 2026. </p>
<p>This money was intended to protect 66,500 properties from flooding. It is part of a decade-long Labour government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hundreds-of-thousands-of-homes-and-businesses-to-benefit-from-largest-flood-defence-investment-programme-in-history#:~:text=In%20the%20Spending%20Review%2C%20the,repairing%20and%20maintaining%20existing%20ones.">plan</a> to spend more than £7.9bn on flood defences.</p>
<p>There has been a <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5804/cmselect/cmpubacc/71/report.html">consistent shortfall</a> in maintaining England’s flood defences, with the Environment Agency <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environment-agency-corporate-scorecards-2024-to-2025/environment-agency-corporate-scorecard-2024-to-2025-quarter-two--2">expecting</a> to protect <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/progress-in-adapting-to-climate-change-2025/#post-51607-footnote-24">fewer properties</a> by 2027 than it had initially planned.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/">Climate Change Committee</a> (CCC) has <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/progress-in-adapting-to-climate-change-2025/">attributed</a> this to rising costs, backlogs from previous governments and a lack of capacity. It also points to the strain from “more frequent and severe” weather events, such as storms in recent years that have been <a href="https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/876a438a-3963-4780-a226-55d7cff1e1d3/content">amplified</a> by climate change.</p>
<p>However, the CCC <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/progress-in-adapting-to-climate-change-2025/#post-51607-endnote-142">also said</a> last year that, if the 2024-26 spending programme is delivered, it would be “slightly closer to the track” of the Environment Agency targets out to 2027.</p>
<p>The government has released constituency-level data on which schemes in England it plans to fund, covering £1.4bn of the 2024-26 investment. The other half of the FCERM spending covers additional measures, from repairing existing defences to advising local authorities.</p>
<p>The map below shows the distribution of spending on FCERM schemes in England over the past two years, highlighting the constituency of Richard Tice.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="Map of England showing that Richard Tice's Boston and Skegness constituency is set to receive at least £55m for flood defences between 2024 and 2026" class="wp-image-61420" height="1636" src="https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Richard_Tice_s_Boston_and_Skegness_constituency_is_set_to_receive_at_least_55m_for_flood_defences_between_2024_and_2026.png" width="1560" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Flood-defence spending on new and replacement schemes in England in 2024-25 and 2025-26. The government notes that, as Environment Agency accounts have not been finalised and approved, the investment data is “provisional and subject to change”. Some schemes cover multiple constituencies and are not included on the map. Source: Environment Agency <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes" id="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes" type="link">FCERM data</a>.</figcaption></figure>
<p>By far the largest sum of money – £85.6m in total – has been committed to a <a href="https://www.somerset.gov.uk/beaches-ports-and-flooding/bridgwater-tidal-barrier-scheme/">tidal barrier</a> and various other defences in the Somerset constituency of Bridgwater, the seat of Conservative MP Ashley Fox. </p>
<p>Over the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/09/why-is-the-uk-so-rainy-this-year-and-how-is-the-climate-crisis-making-matters-worse">first months of 2026</a>, the south-west region has faced significant flooding and Fox has <a href="https://www.ashleyfox.org.uk/news/ashley-fox-mp-presses-flooding-minister-urgent-action-protect-somerset">called for</a> more support from the government, citing “climate patterns shifting and rainfall intensifying”. </p>
<p>He has also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Ashley7Fox/posts/the-conservatives-have-told-the-truth-that-the-2050-net-zero-target-is-impossibl/1199069602031245/">backed</a> his party’s <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-why-conservative-leader-kemi-badenoch-is-wrong-about-uks-net-zero-goal/">position</a> that “the 2050 net-zero target is impossible” and called for more fossil-fuel extraction in the North Sea.</p>
<p>Tice’s east-coast constituency of Boston and Skegness, which is <a href="https://www.axa.co.uk/newsroom/media-releases/2024/new-axa-uk-research-reveals-areas-of-england--most-vulnerable-to-extreme-weather/">highly vulnerable</a> to flooding from both rivers and the sea, is set to receive £55m. Among the supported projects are <a href="https://engageenvironmentagency.uk.engagementhq.com/saltfleet-to-gibraltar-point-strategy">beach defences</a> from Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and upgrades to pumping stations.</p>
<p>Overall, Boston and Skegness has the second-largest portion of flood-defence funding, as the chart below shows. Constituencies with Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs occupied the other top positions. </p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="Chart showing that Conservative, Reform and Liberal Democrat constituencies are the top recipients of flood defence spending" class="wp-image-61419" height="950" src="https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/constituency-flood-defence-spending.png" width="1850" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Top 10 English constituencies by FCERM funding in 2024-25 and 2025-26. Source: Environment Agency <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes" id="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes" type="link">FCERM data</a>.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Overall, despite Labour MPs occupying 347 out of England’s 543 constituencies – nearly two-thirds of the total – more than half of the flood-defence funding was distributed to constituencies with non-Labour MPs. This reflects the flood risk in coastal and rural areas that are not traditional Labour strongholds.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Reform funding</h2>
<p>While Reform has just eight MPs, representing 1% of the population, its constituencies have been assigned 4% of the flood-defence funding for England. </p>
<p>Nearly all of this money was for Tice’s constituency, although party leader Nigel Farage’s coastal Clacton seat in Kent received £2m.</p>
<p>Reform UK is <a href="https://www.reformparty.uk/policies#policies-section">committed</a> to “scrapping net-zero” and its leadership has <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2024/06/03/nigel-farage-climate-history-record-reform-uk/">expressed</a> firmly climate-sceptic views. </p>
<p>Much has been made of the disconnect between the party’s climate policies and the threat climate change poses to its voters. <a href="https://www.axa.co.uk/globalassets/pdfs/newsroom/reports-and-publications/axa-climate-risk-report.pdf">Various</a> <a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2025/11/20/drowning-in-denial-one-in-five-homes-in-reform-uk-heartlands-could-be-under-water-within-25-years/">analyses</a> have shown the flood risk in Reform-dominated areas, particularly Lincolnshire.</p>
<p>Tice has <a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/richard-tice-slammed-for-spreading-climate-change-misinformation/">rejected</a> climate science, <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/richard-tice-end-net-zero-madness-reindustrialise-britain-5HjdTSC_2/">advocated</a> for fossil-fuel production and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75w0rx3l47o">criticised</a> Environment Agency flood-defence activities. Yet, he has also <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2125294/reform-uk-warns-fens-flooding">called</a> for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.</p>
<p>This may reflect Tice’s broader approach to climate change. In a 2024 interview with <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/reform-uks-tice-claims-rising-sea-levels-can-be-dealt-with-by-a-bit-of-steel-and-5HjcwB9_2/">LBC</a>, he said:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“Where you’ve got concerns about sea level defences and sea level rise, guess what? A bit of steel, a bit of cement, some aggregate…and you build some concrete sea level defences. That’s how you deal with rising sea levels.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While <a href="https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/climate-adaptation-papers/index.html">climate adaptation</a> is viewed as vital in a warming world, there are <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-climate-adaptation-becomes-less-effective-as-the-world-warms/">limits</a> on how much societies can adapt and <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/un-report-five-charts-which-explain-the-gap-in-finance-for-climate-adaptation/">adaptation costs</a> will continue to increase as emissions rise.</p>
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<p>The post <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-constituency-of-reforms-climate-sceptic-richard-tice-gets-55m-flood-funding/">Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org">Carbon Brief</a>.</p>