The package goes beyond the AI unit. The prime minister will pledge £45m for fire crews to buy wildfire-specific protective equipment, after more than half of the 29 fire services that responded to information requests had none. Standard kit is poorly suited to wildfires: particle-filtering respirators do not block gases such as carbon monoxide common in wildfire smoke, and conventional PPE can be so hot and heavy that crews overheat or remove it entirely. Military planes and helicopters will also be made available for fires on remote moorland and steep terrain.

Businesses including Google, Airbus and VodafoneThree are expected to attend the summit to discuss satellite monitoring and early warning systems. The government will also put £25m into restoring dried-out peatlands in England so they hold more water and act as natural firebreaks, with a grant scheme for farmers to fireproof their land expected to run from April 2027 to April 2029. The announcement follows the quiet scrapping of earlier Conservative-era plans to prepare the English countryside for wildfires, which led Alistair Carmichael, chair of the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee, to raise "serious questions" about whether this summer's fires could have looked different with more resources on the ground.