The list of unanswered questions is a long one, but at least the debate about compensation has reached the highest level, where it was previously only spoken about in hushed tones. Ed Foss asks - what comes next?

The issue of compensation - often referred to as ’social justice’ - has been on the lips of campaigners and government officials for years, albeit the latter almost exclusively in private. But this is the first time someone in such a high-profile position has aired such views in the public arena.

Lord Smith’s words are to be welcomed in part. After all, his comments raise the issue of compensation higher up the scale than it has ever been.

But they are also difficult to interpret. If there is to be a scheme of compensation, when will it happen, will it be retrospective and who will qualify? And perhaps most importantly, what form will it take - will it meet campaigners’ demands of 100pc of market value, or will the figures be too great for the taxpayer to swallow?

When the EDP revealed earlier in the year that Natural England was discussing an option to lose six Broads villages to the sea, it caused deep concern and instantly blighted house prices.

Just because environment minister Phil Woolas subsequently visited the county and said £100m will be spent on sea defences over the next 50 years, that doesn’t make the problem go away.

Will that £100m ever come out of the coffers? Administrations change, forecasts of climate change can be wrong in both directions and the pressures on the Treasury can move quickly and along many paths.

A senior government adviser may have finally listened to the compensation pleas, but some of his other comments will send pulses racing. Lord Smith said there would be “hard choices” over which areas could be defended and which would have to be left to be reclaimed by the sea.

And he said that while the agency would do its “level best” to protect those areas where there were significant numbers of homes, he warned that it would not be possible to save all of them.

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb is to approach Lord Smith and ask him for clarity on his position on a number of related issues.

One would imagine that this clarity is some way off. This is a debate which has raged for years and although it has made some progress, there is widespread confusion and concern in communities around the country.

That concern is most immediately evident in houses such as the one owned by Di Wrightson in Happisburgh.

Miss Wrightson is almost certainly facing losing her home in the coming months as the sea continues to bite at the neighbouring cliff.

The erosion at Happisburgh has already forced her to move the tearoom business she once ran from the clifftop home with friend Jill Morris inland to the village’s church rooms.

“Lord Smith is clearly trying to get the government to think along the lines of compensation,” said Miss Wrightson.

“And if someone in that kind of position is advising such a thing should be done, it sends a little bit of hope our way. There is the chink of light at the end of the tunnel, but I imagine if it were to happen it would be too late for us. We get the feeling that once the house on the very end goes - and it is within just a very few feet now - then that will be the time we have to go as well, as all four houses are attached.

“The government seem to take so long to do anything, even if they think this is a good idea, you are talking two or three years before it all happens, by which time I would be surprised if we were still in this house.

“And I can’t see them paying compensation in retrospect, after all if they did, where would it all end?”

Miss Wrightson said it was high time that the subject of compensation was given proper consideration.

“Other European countries do it, so they should do it here - isn’t that obvious?” she said.

Although some people don’t want to talk about the issues of coastal erosion and saline inundation, the efforts of Mr Lamb and Happisburgh- based campaigner Malcolm Kerby mean that at least the problem is on the government radar.

In fact it is widely accepted that without their work the subject of compensation would not have reached the heart of government.

“It has been exhausting continually raising the spectre of compensation, but we have been told by people in authority that without the work which has gone on across the last nine years, the subject would simply not be being considered,” said Mr Kerby.

People may be tired from the difficulties of this debate, but the opportunity to rest is undoubtedly a long way off.

Story by Ed Foss in the Eastern Daily Press