For residents of Wyberton West Road in Boston, Lincolnshire, the dread of rising water is now a permanent fixture of life. Their homes, flooded in a devastating event over a year ago, stand as symbols of a growing national crisis: properties becoming uninsurable and unmortgageable as climate breakdown escalates flood risk. The smell of sewage-laced black water that filled Audrey Crook’s home that night is gone, but the panic remains. “Every time the drain is high at the back, we’re all panicking,” she says. Another resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, states bluntly that some homes are now “unmortgageable,” leaving owners trapped with soaring insurance premiums now exceeding £900 a year and no prospect of moving.
The event that upended their lives in January 2025 was severe and technically exceptional. Record rainfall of over 50mm fell on saturated, frozen ground, causing river levels in Boston to peak at 3.192 metres above sea level in the early hours of 7 January. According to data, this exceeded modelled predictions for a 1 in 1000-year event. The flooding internally damaged 38 residential properties, with the South Forty Foot Drain, which runs behind the houses, playing a key role. Record-high water worsened known seepage through its right bank and caused aging flood walls to fail. This was not an isolated incident but part of a stark trend for Lincolnshire, where the Chief Fire Officer reports flooding incidents have doubled from an average of 90 per year to 214 between 2019/20 and 2023/24.
The Political Divide on a Flooding Frontline
This reality exists in stark contrast to the political stance of their local MP. Boston and Skegness, nestled in the Fens, is the most flood-prone constituency in England. The Environment Agency states 91% of its buildings are at some level of flood risk. A report by AXA and Public First ranked it second in England for vulnerability to global warming impacts, primarily flooding, with an estimated £818 million in costs to homes and businesses by 2055. Yet the constituency’s MP, Reform UK’s Richard Tice, is one of his party’s most ardent opponents of climate action, regularly labelling net zero targets “net stupid” and having publicly dismissed human-made climate change as “garbage”.
This dissonance has bred deep frustration. Audrey Crook says she is still waiting for Tice to visit her street. “Didn’t show his face. A lot of people were angry about that,” she says. Tice, in response to criticism, has dismissed it as “politically motivated claptrap,” arguing that even if global net zero were achieved, sea level rises would persist for centuries. He states his priority is “practical, immediate protections,” focusing on adaptation: maintained rivers, effective drainage, dredging, and investment in sea defences. He says he has raised flooding in parliament, met the Environment Agency and affected residents, and offered support to constituents who contacted his office.
However, the tension Alasdair Johnstone of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit identifies is palpable. Polling for the ECIU found more than half of those planning to vote Reform in recent local elections backed efforts to tackle climate change. “As people see first-hand the impacts of climate change on their lives, it does not sit well when they are told this is not happening,” Johnstone says. This divide is now being institutionalised locally. Since Reform took control of Lincolnshire County Council in May 2025, it has scrapped the council’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2050. Council leader Sean Matthews called the target “completely unachievable” and too expensive, a move replicated by six other Reform-led councils according to the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
Broader Implications: Mortgage Prisoners and National Funding
The local conflict in Boston illuminates a frightening national prospect. A study by Public First and the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association brands Tice’s constituency the “climate mortgage prisoner capital of England,” with 8,600 homes at high flood risk by 2050. Nationally, it warns over 400,000 homeowners could become “mortgage prisoners,” trapped in high-interest loans for unsellable, flood-prone properties.
Substantial funds are being directed to the area. Analysis by Carbon Brief shows the constituency has been promised at least £55 million from the government’s £1.4 billion flood defence fund since 2024, the second-largest sum for a single constituency. This supports projects like the Boston Barrier Scheme, an Environment Agency project which completed its first phase in December 2020, improving protection for over 13,500 properties, with full completion anticipated for 2028. Following the January 2025 floods, the Environment Agency has also been reassessing its Flood Warning Service, which at the time only provided tidal warnings unsuitable for the localised river flooding.
Yet for residents like Malcolm Fairweather, 71, assurance is in short supply. He says “there’s been no follow-up” on his concerns since the council changed hands. The council’s head of environment, Chris Miller, said all affected households were invited to apply for a “property flood resilience” grant scheme, resulting in seven completed applications. For those still navigating insurance claims and repairs, the debate between climate action and adaptation feels abstract. Cain Arathoon, Audrey Crook’s son, offers a simple conclusion from the frontline: “No matter how many times you’re going to try and say that climate change isn’t real, you can look to a street that’s been flooded and there’s your answer.”
