Seaside homes may have to be abandoned to the waves

Communities will have to move away as the water level rises, says head of Environment Agency

SEASIDE residents cannot all be protected from rising seas and some must move, the head of the Environment Agency is to say.

In a speech to a flooding and coastal erosion conference today, Sir James Bevan will say an “inconvenient truth” is that some British communities “cannot stay where they are”.

“There is no coming back for land that coastal erosion has taken away or which a rising sea level has put permanently or frequently under water.

“Which means that in some places the right answer – in economic, strategic and human terms – will have to be to move communities away from danger rather than try to protect them from the inevitable impacts of a rising sea level,” Sir James will warn.

Coastal erosion is leading to the loss of homes in the UK, particularly in Norfolk and Suffolk where properties have been left dangling over cliff edges and residents were forced to move inland.

One of the most famous examples is Dunwich in Suffolk, which has been shrinking because of erosion for hundreds of years, dwindling from a large medieval port to a small village, with Norfolk communities, including Hemsby, Winterton-on-sea and Happisburgh, also badly affected.

Hard coastal defences, including sea walls, offshore reefs and revetments have long been built around the UK to slow the rate of coastal erosion.

But scientists warn that these are becoming less effective as the rate of sea level rises accelerates because of climate change.

The Climate Change Committee has claimed that Britain could see up to 14 inches (37cm) of sea level rise by midcentury, and will “almost certainly” have to adapt to 38 inches (1m) of sea level rise at some point in the future.

This puts large areas at risk of being below sea level within the coming decades even with carbon emission cuts, meaning that in the future whole towns and villages may have to be abandoned.

By the 2080s up to 100,000 properties are expected to be at risk from coastal erosion.

Sir James added that it was “far too early to say which communities are likely to need to move in due course”.

He said: “When we do eventually get to decisions on any relocation of communities, they [authorities] must take full account of the views of the people who live there: no one should be forced from their homes against their will.

“But we do need to start the conversation now about the options, not least because we owe it to the threatened communities themselves to help them decide what they want their long-term future to be,” Sir James said.

He added that the Environment Agency has been trying to move away from “carbon-intensive materials” such as concrete and steel and use more natural flood defences instead.

These include restoring coastal salt marshes, which is a less expensive measure and can also provide habitats for wildlife.

A £36million initiative run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency is also trying out methods to reduce the effect of coastal flooding in the east of England, including creating temporary car parks in “erosion zones”.