More than 1,400 flood defence projects are to receive funding to protect 300,000 homes, the Treasury has said.
Ministers say the "vital" £2.3bn investment - not made up of new money - will help prevent £30bn of damage.
Major projects to be allocated cash include the Thames Estuary (£196m) and Humber Estuary (£80m).
The government's Committee on Climate Change (CCC) welcomed the funding but said maintenance of existing defences was being neglected.
Shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle said: "Communities at risk of flooding won't buy government spin on what is simply a re-announcement of capital funding confirmed a year ago.
"This is not new money - at the beginning of this parliament David Cameron cut the flood protection budget by over a £100m a year.
"As a result we are playing catch up on flood defences."
The CCC told BBC News that only a quarter of flood defences were being maintained fully - meaning the remainder will degrade and need replacing at extra expense.
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Timeline: Somerset communities were under water for more than a month earlier this year
The condition of assets was in decline before the storms of last winter, mirroring the reduction in maintenance spending over the period, it said.
The committee also said the Environment Agency now had 800 fewer flood risk management staff than in 2010/11, including in asset management and incident control.
It said the impact of these staff losses had never been explained.
A Treasury spokesman said it was spending £171m on maintenance this year and had restored the Environment Agency budget to the same in cash terms as in 2010/11 (behind inflation).
'Destruction and heartache'It was working with the Environment Agency to improve efficiency, the spokesman added.
But he stressed that the National Infrastructure Plan announcement for capital investment in major defences significantly reduced risk to households in highly vulnerable areas.
Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "We all saw the destruction and heartache caused by flooding last year and that is why this investment is vital to build Britain's defences for the future.
"The projects we are announcing today will protect some of the country's most at-risk locations ensuring that we will be as prepared as possible for future severe weather."
Some of the projects include Boston in Lincolnshire (£73m), Rossall in Lancashire (£47m), Oxford (£42m) and the Tonbridge area (£17m).
And on top of the £2.3bn, the government will commit to £15.5m on flood defences in Somerset over the next six years benefitting 7,000 properties - including £4.2m on the Somerset Levels and Moors.
This is part of at least £35m committed to Somerset from this year until 2021.
'Headline-grabbing'The CCC said it was not yet convinced the UK was properly prepared for floods as climate change threatened to make extreme weather worse while 4,000 homes a year were still being built in areas of significant risk.
The government's critics will accuse it of finding the cash for headline-grabbing projects whilst neglecting existing assets.
The committee - the government's official advisers - thinks lack of maintenance may have caused some defences to fail in past storms.
The government appears to be following the logic that it is better to invest in big new projects in high-risk areas while allowing maintenance of some existing defences in low-risk areas to slip behind.
Flood defences took a battering in last winter's storms but the Treasury said it expected that 96.4% of the most important defences would be back at target condition by April 2015.
The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management welcomed the extra certainty provided by the government's six-year capital programme.
But it called on ministers to extend their long-term thinking to maintenance. And it warned that more cash still might be needed to combat surface water flooding if the UK continued to experience the sort of violent downpours which had caused havoc in recent years.
Follow Roger Harrabin on Twitter @rharrabin
Were you flooded at the start of the year? What is being done where you are to protect against further floods? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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