People who faced losing their homes through the effects of climate change should be compensated, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said yesterday.

He met a handful of people at Happisburgh whose homes have been blighted by sea erosion, then addressed hundreds more at Hickling about the idea to surrender 25 square miles of the broads area to the sea.

Mr Clegg hit out at Natural England, which wrote the report suggesting at least six villages could be sacrificed to the sea as continuing to defend them was too difficult and costly. He said it was an insensitive, cavalier approach to the issue.

An insinuation in the report that flooding the broads would teach the public a lesson about climate change was unacceptable, he added.

A cheering crowd was told that a long-term approach to compensation was needed, and Mr Clegg said he would do his best to represent their views and get their voices heard.

Mr Clegg said he would work with North Norfolk Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb to ensure the case for compen-sation was understood at the highest level of government. He added his name to 15,000 others in a petition, which he will take to parliament, calling for the broads to be saved.

Earlier, Mr Clegg spend an hour on the clifftop at Happisburgh, home to one of the most notorious examples of coastal erosion in the country.

The Coastal Concern Action Group campaigning for protection from the sea is based in the village, and Mr Clegg chatted to its co-ordinator, Malcolm Kerby, who said that it was the first time they had a political leader in Happisburgh. He thought Mr Clegg had left with a better understanding of the real situation.

Mr Clegg compared the situation to Heathrow airport, saying he was sure that people who lost their homes because of the new runway were compensated, so he could not see why those suffering from natural risks should not be treated the same.

Story in the Norwich Evening News