Sea levels could rise 3ft to threaten 1.5m UK homes by 2080

MORE than 1.5million coastal properties will be at risk of flooding by 2080 due to rising sea levels caused by global warming, a report warns today.

By this time the sea is likely to have risen by 3ft – which will more than triple the number of properties under threat.

Current plans to protect our shoreline are ‘ not fit for purpose’ and ‘some coastal communities’ will have to be abandoned as it will be too expensive to protect them, the Government’s advisory panel the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said. Around 90 miles of coastline around England may have to be sacrificed as it will not be financially viable to save it.

Areas around the country at risk of major erosion include the Lancashire coastline, the Humber Estuary and Holderness coast, south Devon, north Somerset and parts of Essex and Norfolk.

A sea level rise of 3ft will make floods and storm surges more violent – causing cliffs to crumble, the report said.

It warned 100,000 clifftop properties will be at risk from land by by 2080. The panel said 1,000 miles of major roads, 400 miles of railway lines and 92 stations are under threat.

In addition, 55 old landfill sites could be affected, leading to them spilling their potentially hazardous contents into the sea.

There are 22 government ‘shoreline management plans’ in place to tackle the threat of flooding and coastal erosion in England.

These rely on ‘holding the line’ reinforcing concrete seawalls or building new ones. But this is uneconomical and could cost up to £30billion, the panel said.

Professor Jim Hall, the CCC’s flood and erosion expert, said: ‘There’s already a very significant risk of flooding and coastal erosion. That could get a lot worse – about a million-and-a-half properties in future at risk from flooding, 100,000 properties at risk from coastal erosion.’ He said the Government needed to have an ‘honest conversation’ with ‘ small coastal communities and villages where it’s very difficult to make an economic case to continue holding the line’.

He said: ‘We are talking about abandoning houses and people being exposed to intolerable levels of coastal flood risk.’

Baroness Brown of Cambridge, deputy chairman of the CCC, said: ‘Our current approach to protect slides ing the coastline is really not fit for purpose. This is a wake-up call.

‘People living on the coast will assume it will remain protected’.

She said the Government should look at introducing an insurance scheme to protect properties facing erosion.

A Government spokesman said: ‘We will take action to ensure our country is resilient and prepared for the challenges the changing climate brings.’