Thousands of holidaymakers heading to British beaches this summer will be cheered by a major government report into the state of the UK’s seas. Coastal waters are getting cleaner, fish stocks are improving and species diversity in estuaries is increasing, according to the most authoritative examination ever carried out of UK seas.

But while the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs study boasts of “significant improvements” since the last such report in 2005, it also paints a picture of an environment being rapidly affected by a warming world. Seas around the British Isles are higher, warmer and more acid, it says, and coastal litter levels are at a record high.

The sea surface temperature of UK waters has risen on average by between 0.5 and 1C since the 1870s, which could affect the fish that appear on our plates in future. Of the 330 species found around the UK, cold-water species such as cod are in retreat, while warm-water fish including red-mullet, seabass and John Dory are spreading rapidly.

Fish stocks are improving overall, partly due to fishing reductions brought about by European Union quotas, despite criticism from marine conservation groups that the quotas are set too high to maintain fish stocks. The proportion of fin-fish stocks in UK waters being harvested sustainably has risen from 10% in the early 1990s to 25% in 2007.

However, the report notes that a large majority of stocks are still being fished at unsustainable levels. Fish are simultaneously being hit by warming waters, which are causing the cold and warm water zooplankton that fish feed on to move north. The warm water zooplankton tend to be smaller and less nutritious, affecting fish larvae and stocks.

Climate change is also causing sea levels to rise, with the mean sea level rising by 1.4mm per year in the 20th century. While slower than global growth of 1.7mm per year in the same period, the rise has not always been steady – in the 1990s, it was going up by 3-4mm each year. More coastal erosion and more flooding are likely to occur as a result, says the report, with the Humber estuary and Norfolk coast particularly at risk.

UK waters are also not exempt from the global trend of ocean acidifiation due to higher levels of dissolved CO2. This leads to harmful effects for marine life that rely on calcification, such as crustacea and molluscs. But the authors of the report admit the lack of a baseline for pH levels makes it hard to measure the rate of our acidifying seas.

Levels of pollution continue to drop since Defra’s research in 2005, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury. However, there are still some localised problems such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) which, while stabilising nationally, are still found in places at levels that affect wildlife, including harbour porpoises. Litter levels doubled, though, between 1994 and 2007, with 2,000 items per kilometre of coastline. Litter was even found at a depth of 1,000 metres.

The picture for waterbirds and seabirds is mixed. Waterbird numbers are largely healthy, with the 2006/2007 population numbers 85% above levels in the 1970s. But seabirds have seen a 9% decrease in numbers since 2005, with herring gull numbers down over 50% since 1969. Seabirds are suffering particularly badly in north and north-west Scotland, due to the arrival of invasive species such as rat and mink, which affect nesting sites.

The evidence in the report was gathered from peer-reviewed science provided by universities, government agencies, NGOs and industry.

Marine environment minister Richard Benyon said: “The report’s findings show that we are moving in the right direction, but there is more work that needs to be done, especially to protect the UK’s seabirds. I am committed to improving our marine environment by delivering the conservation measures in the Marine and Coastal Access Act and hope to see further improvements in the next report as we gain the benefits from Marine Conservation Zones.” In January, Lundy Island off the north Devon coast became England’s first Marine Conservation Zone.

Story by Adam Vaughan in the Guardian

Visit the Charting Progress 2 website

Historic seawalls at Cromer need £6.2m worth of repair work in the next two years, and double that figure to keep them in good shape for another century.

The multi-million pound bill comes as the town’s pier is also in line for £1m worth of urgent repairs.

More than a century of battering from the sand and flint-loaded waves has weakened the 110-year-old late Victorian sea walls.

Like the pier, the walls are not unsafe, but if nothing is done the walls will begin to fail – putting the promenade, pier access, and ultimately cliff top properties including hotels at risk, said North Norfolk District Council’s head of coastal strategy Peter Frew.

In places the original walls are half way back into the promenade after other strengthening works. In other places what is behind them is unknown.

The worst spots are in the central area around the pier, but on the east beach, parts of the sea wall have no proper foundations, are being undermined and need piling.

Moves to carry out the work – mostly wall and groyne improvements, date back to 2001, but were hit by a government freeze on coastal defences, followed by a change of funding assessment systems.

Under the new formula the Cromer scheme needed to fit into a wider strategy, which was approved by the council cabinet this week.

It also has to identify the repair and maintenance cost over the next 100 years, which is estimated at £12.5m.

But because it potentially saves £84.3m worth of property the scheme is well ahead of the government target of a 5:1 cost-benefit ratio.

Mr Frew said he hoped the scheme would not fall foul of the current government spending review, as the Defra department in charge of coastal defence is not currently in line for the heaviest cuts.

“It is eligible and meets the grant criteria, but it will also have to compete with other places for the money in the pot, so we will see what the budget brings on June 22,” he added.

The reinforced concrete sea walls are listed for their historical importance as early examples of their kind, meaning government permission is needed to do work on them. And they would have to be replaced almost like-for-like, rather than adding the thinner kind of walls built during Sheringham’s seafront improvements in the early 1990s.

Mr Frew said the council was also trying to invite new government ministers to the area to showcase its problems and how £3m worth of national Pathfinder cash was being used.

He said that in the future – as the Cromer to Happisburgh stretch of coast was re-examined – if the government did not provide funding for sea defences, it should provide cash to help communities adjust to the issues thrown up by a changing coastline.

Story by Richard Batson in the Eastern Daily Press

Adapting to Coastal Change represents a staging post in the evolution of a policy framework on adapting to coastal change.  CLG’s new Planning Policy Statement 25 Supplement: Development and Coastal Change that was published on 9th March, and the work of the 15 coastal change pathfinders that were announced on 1st December last year, are both key parts of this evolving picture.  Lessons learned by the pathfinders will help inform future developments of this framework in the form of further guidance and/or policy.  Further details about the pathfinders are available on the DEFRA website via http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/flooding/manage/pathfinder/index.htm.

THE Government has ruled out providing help to tackle the problem of shifting sands at Tynemouth.

North Tyneside Council’s cabinet will be told tomorrow of the toll which winter winds and high tides have taken on the Blue Flag Longsands beach and dunes.

The erosion has left a sheer face to part of the dunes system which has led to the closure of some public access points.

The council has approached the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in an effort to secure funding to improve coastal protection for the Longsands.

But Defra has said there is a limited budget available nationally to tackle coastal erosion, and the Environment Agency prioritises funding on a national basis to address the highest risk areas.

“The sand loss you have described at Tynemouth would not meet the priority criteria for funding,” Defra told the council.

The sand dunes overlooking Longsands South Beach are an important coastal habitat that also serve as a natural sea defence.

The dunes have recently been planted with more coastal grasses to bind them while closely-spaced gorse shrubs act as a protective barrier along the inland edge.

The council has been working to improve the habitat in the dunes by protecting them from visitors through fencing work, which started in 2000 at the south end of the beach and was extended in two further blocks to the north in 2006 and 2009.

But this winter a combination of high spring tides and winds affected a large area of sand which was then carried out to sea by the retreating tide and dropped offshore.

A subsequent storm and heavy sea conditions had further significant effects on Longsands and dunes, as the lower sand levels allowed the tide to advance up the beach. The coastal road above the dunes was inspected during and after the storms.

“We don’t believe the highway is at risk at the moment but we will continue to monitor it,” said Derek Smith, council senior manager for engineering services.

Last week a section of cliff at Frenchman’s Bay in South Shields collapsed because of coastal erosion. Ed Hodson, North Tyneside cabinet member for the environment, said: “These sand dunes are an important coastal habitat and sea defence.

“I believe it’s vital that the area continues to be closely monitored so we can take action to protect the dunes whenever necessary.”

Story by Tony Henderson in the Journal

SEFTON’S changing coastline is to benefit from a £337,000 government boost.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has pledged the money to help Sefton Council adapt to coastal erosion and dune movements at Formby.

The site was last year highlighted by a National Trust report which named it among the top 10 UK beaches which could be irrevocably changed by increasingly stormy weather.

With one of the largest dune systems in Britain, Sefton Council proposed building a new board walk system at the site to continue access to the sands.

It also proposed a new visitor car park after the last one became inaccessible due to the movement of the beach.Š

The council has worked with the National Trust and the Sefton Coast Partnership to involve local schools and residents with the scheme.

The new DEFTA grant will pay for these schemes to be put in place.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: “Our coastline has always been shaped by the sea and as climate change takes hold the risk of coastal change will only increase.

“That is why we need to help our coastal communities to adapt to this change.

“No one can know or understand what these communities need better than the communities themselves, and with this funding they will be able to work together, to better prepare their people and businesses by adapting to local change.”

Erosion already affects 30% of the English coastline, while other areas are at risk of flooding or an increase in amounts of shingle.

Fifteen coastal communities will benefit from this £11m grant scheme, and winning authorities come from all around the coast.

The 2008 National Trust report stated: “For the last 100 years, the beach at Formby has been eroding at a rate of four metres every year.

“Severe storms can take 12 to 15 metres from the front of the dunes in one event. This can be followed by some recovery as sand blows in from the beach.”

It added over the next 100 years the sands will recede by a minimum of 400 metres.

In June, 2009, Sefton were among the authorities who were invited to enter the Coastal Challenge Pathfinder competition to come up with their own scheme to deal with problems of erosion in their area.

The grants will be used by local authorities to explore and test their own ideas of adaptation.

Story in the Formby Times

A successful multi million pound bid to solve major coastal problems in Norfolk and Suffolk was hailed by experts and campaigners last night as the most important step ever taken in the management of the coast.

And as three local authorities – North Norfolk, Waveney and Great Yarmouth – celebrated winning nearly £5m out of a national pot of £11m to address a range of challenges, officials in charge of managing the coast said the money would help individuals about to lose their homes to erosion, the two counties as a whole and also build future policies for the rest of the country in the face of climate change.

A small number of people teetering on the very edges of some cliff tops, including in the now internationally known erosion hotspot of Happisburgh, were for the first time guaranteed payments for the loss of their homes where they had previously faced walking away with nothing.

But although those compensatory payments are set to grab many of the headlines, those behind the successful bids stressed this element was only one part of a wider policy-influencing mandate which the government has handed to Norfolk and Suffolk along with the money.

North Norfolk has been given £3m, Waveney £1.5m and Great Yarmouth £296,500. After North Norfolk and Waveney, the largest handout was East Riding, where £1.2m was made available.

The weighting of the North Norfolk bid has been interpreted as demonstrating how council officials, politicians and campaigners from the district have led the way in the battle against erosion, its impacts and the government’s attitude to the coast.

All 15 councils around the country which won money will now be referred to as ‘pathfinders’ and they will have 18 months to spend the money on a range of schemes, while feeding back the lessons they learn so government can look further into the future.

Last night, leading campaigner and the coordinator of the Happisburgh based Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG), Malcolm Kerby said: “This is ground breaking. For the first time ever we have genuine recognition from central government that these problems exist.

“And for the first time the local authorities will be able to properly manage the coast and the consequences of change along that coast.

“It quite simply is the most important step ever taken in the management of our coastline.”

One of the homeowners set to be offered a financial package for her home where previously she thought she would lose everything is Di Wrightson, who lives on Beach Road in Happisburgh.

“After many years of anxiety and stress, watching the storm clouds gather and imagining the difficulties ahead, I suddenly feel as if I have stepped into sunlight,” she said.

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said: “This is an enormous achievement, something which we have collectively fought for in north Norfolk across many years.

“It is the first recognition that there is a need for social justice on this matter.

“The scale of this breakthrough cannot be underestimated, although it is by no means the end point.”

Peter Frew, head of coastal strategy at North Norfolk District Council, said: “I have been working here on the coast since 1992 and in terms of coast management this is the biggest thing that has happened in that time.”

Welcoming the smallest of the three bids, which will be spent on a project for the village of Scratby, Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright said: “By taking part in this programme we can help to formulate effective future policy on this important issue.

“The £300,000 will test different approaches to adapt to coastal erosion and change, such as roll-back and business support programmes.”

A Defra spokesman said: “The pathfinders will road-test new and innovative approaches to planning for and managing change.”

The money will go towards a number of central themes, including:

Story by Ed Foss in the Eastern Daily Press

How the Yarmouth and Waveney areas could benefit

WAVENEY

The Waveney £1.5m will see work undertaken with communities at Corton and Easton Bavents to explore and deliver practical solutions to the impacts of Suffolk’s ever-changing coastline.

The bid is the second largest in the country after North Norfolk.

Council officials said work would commence immediately on exploring new ways of adapting to coastal change.

They added that, working in partnership with the two identified communities, the project would road-test innovative approaches to planning for and managing change.

Two projects will run at Corton. The first will look at developing the amenity level and accessibility of the beach and enhancing facilities, effectively handing the beach back to the community.

The second will see work commence with the people and businesses of Corton to find a long-term solution to the issue of coastal erosion and its impact on the village over the next 20 to 50 years. The aim is to ensure Corton continues to remain a secure and viable community.

Work at Easton Bavents will focus on long-term planning solutions for those living in vulnerable areas. It will approach the issue of coastal erosion from a planning perspective, looking at adapting policies, possible relocations and the impact on Easton Bavents and its surrounding communities.

Easton Bavents has become particularly well known because of the activities of resident Peter Boggis in building his own sea defences – and the legal complications which have arisen from those actions.

Ken Sale, Waveney District Council’s portfolio holder for environment, said: “We are delighted that we have received funding for this important programme of work.

“Our communities are facing the reality of coastal change and we need to gain a greater understanding of the implications for the future.

“We hope that these projects and the learning we share with our pathfinder colleagues help us find strong, long-term solutions to this issue and help secure a prosperous future for those communities on the front line.”

GREATYARMOUTH

The borough council will receive almost £300,000 for a joint project in conjunction with the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group.

The success was welcomed by Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright: “I am pleased that Great Yarmouth has been selected in conjunction with Scratby to participate in the pathfinder programme.

“I have always campaigned on behalf of those people affected by coastal erosion and by taking part in this programme we can help to formulate effective future policy on this important issue.

“The £300,000 will test different approaches to adapt to coastal erosion and change, such as roll-back and business support programmes, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group and the borough council on this project.”

At last, ‘joined up’ coastal management

Life changed in Happisburgh yesterday.

The village – a calm, pretty outpost of Norfolk which has become an international icon in the battle to address the impacts of coastal erosion, climate change and an emerging Whitehall-driven policy of managed retreat – was abuzz, albeit rather gently, with the news that their local authority had been awarded £3m to tackle coastal challenges.

Part of that money – and this would have been a quite staggering concept just a few months ago – will be used to buy the half a dozen most at risk homes and allow people to walk away with far more than what they thought they would receive – which was, until yesterday, nothing.

Another chunk will be put towards a “buy and lease back” scheme for a group of slightly less at risk homes, again an idea which few people saw coming until very recently.

This is a community with strength of character, no little patience, a beautiful beach, an eye-catching sentinel church, charming candy- striped lighthouse and relatively small but charismatic businesses – a wet fish shop, pub, general store and caravan site.

But Happisburgh, along with other communities in Norfolk, Suffolk and around the country, has been blighted by the spectre of coastal erosion.

Not purely blighted by name, but also by a suffering property market. Houses still sell here, but often for less than they would if they were elsewhere, away from both the erosion itself and the perception of how serious that erosion is.

The hope is that the dual purchasing schemes, alongside other parts of the project such as helping businesses move backwards physically on to new land as the cliff crumbles before them and tidying up areas which have become eyesores because of erosion, will breathe new life into such communities as Happisburgh, restore confidence and allow the property market to find a new level.

That market level may never be the same as it would be for an inland village, but the key point is that it should allow a community which feels it was once led to believe it would have sea defences for perpetuity to spread the cost of losing those defences over more than one unfortunate generation – which for so long appeared to be the current one.

Clive Stockton, who holds the coastal portfolio at North Norfolk District Council as well as running the Hill House pub in Happisburgh, explained: “To date we have had an all or nothing situation, where we applied for government funding for coastal defences for an area or a community and if successful it was all well and good.

“But more and more there were cases of defences being turned down – and that was effectively the end of the story, with communities left to their own devices.

“This is all about addressing the consequences of not defending and coming up with mechanisms to deal with the reality people are left with if funding for defences is not forthcoming.

“This is the first time that has happened.

“With new options, a lot of the blight and the problems which come with not giving a community a future can be removed.

“This is not about backing away from building sea defences; it is about producing a management scheme where there are alternatives.”

The full public explanation of what this project is and how it will work in practice is going to take some time because it is both detailed and unprecedented, but steps are expected to be taken quickly and the emotional impact has been immediate.

Di Wrightson has become something of an accidental Happisburgh celebrity and not only because she used to run a thriving village tearoom. She lives in a pair of houses on Beach Road which will, quite probably within a few months, be demolished and a payment made under the pathfinder project so she can look forward to buying another home.

She said: “The Beach Road residents can now breathe a sigh of relief, but there is still a need for every coastal community to feel properly protected against the uncertainties of erosion and climate change.

“My personal response to this announcement is one of joy and elation that, after many years of anxiety and stress, watching the storm clouds gather and imagining the difficulties ahead, I suddenly feel as if I had stepped into sunlight.

“Please don’t pinch me – I might wake up and find it’s all a beautiful dream!”

Her near neighbour Jane Archer, a founder member of the Coastal Concern Action Group who was infamously told her home was worth £1 last year when applying to borrow against it, looks set to fall into the “buy and lease back” category.

“If this were to happen – and we really don’t know the detail yet – the value of the house would change from nothing to something,” she said.

“It’s just that we don’t know what that something is yet. And we also don’t know the terms of any lease back.

“But we now have some hope we will end up with something, where we previously did not.”

There are many unknowns at this stage. By no means is this a solution to a hugely complicated topic and these projects must be seen as they are: pilots designed to inform and educate.

The pessimist would point out that these purchases may be one-offs and the government may never agree to carry such a policy through to a fully fledged version.

The pessimist might also suggest this is a sop to calm a troublesome bunch of East Anglian campaigners in the short term. That would be a mistake on the part of government. There is now so much knowledge of this subject both in Happisburgh and at North Norfolk District Council’s headquarters in Cromer that it would be unwise to believe the problem will go away with no long-term attempts at a solution.

And it is vitally important to point out that this is not just about Happisburgh, but many other parts of north and west Norfolk, the village of Scratby near Great Yarmouth and also Waveney.

But Happisburgh, and particularly Beach Road, will undoubtedly retain the glare of the media spotlight and it will be fascinating to watch the next few months pass by.

From a press release:

Support for coastal communities in adapting to coastal change was announced today when the government awarded £11 million in grants to fifteen local authorities who had come up with the best and most innovative ideas for dealing with and adapting to coastal change.

The winning local authorities come from all around the English coast, from Sefton in the North West, to East Sussex in the South East. Each has come up with their own “pathfinder” scheme to work with communities and find ways of dealing with a changing coastline.  Projects range from creating new sand dunes and building boardwalks to, where properties are at risk, developing of ‘buy to let’ schemes and the purchase of land to rebuild properties at risk.

Erosion already affects 30% of the English coastline and other areas are at risk of flooding – risks that can only be exacerbated by the threat of climate change.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, said:

“Our coastline has always been shaped by the sea and as climate change takes hold the risk of coastal change will only increase. That is why we need to help our coastal communities to adapt to this change. No one can know or understand what these communities need better than the communities themselves and with this funding they will be able to work together, to better prepare their people and businesses by adapting to local change.”

In June 2009 local authorities living with the threat of coastal change were invited to enter the Coastal Change Pathfinder competition and come up with their own schemes to deal with the problems it caused in their area. The grants will be used by local authorities to explore and test their own ideas of adaptation thus making each community more resilient and ready to face changes.

Notes to editors

1. Details of all the coastal change pathfinders can be found at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/flooding/manage/pathfinder/index.htm

2. A total of 20 bids were received, all containing a range of interesting and innovative ideas. Bids were assessed by a panel including representatives from Defra, the Environment Agency, Communities and Local Government, the Commission for Rural Communities, the Community Development Foundation and the Local Government Improvement and Development Agency.

3. The pathfinder programme will run from November 2009 until Spring 2011. It is also a learning programme and lessons learned from the pathfinder programme will be shared as an educational tool.

4. The fifteen local authorities who have been selected are: Chichester District Council, Dorset County Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, East Sussex County Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Hampshire County Council, Hastings Borough Council, Lincolnshire County Council, North Norfolk District Council, Scarborough Borough Council, Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, Somerset County Council, South Hams District Council, Tendring District Council, Waveney District Council.

Beverley and Holderness MP, Graham Stuart, has urged as many Holderness residents as possible to respond to a new Government consultation on coastal change policy.

The consultation looks at how coastal communities can successfully adapt to the impact of coastal change over the next few decades. One of the main issues the Government is keen to look at is the level of assistance afforded to homeowners who are affected by coastal erosion. For example, the consultation asks the following:

• Do you agree that it is appropriate for Government to make available public funds to local authorities to cover demolition costs for which private homeowners are currently liable?
• Is the homeowner assistance package set at the right level to strike the balance between individuals taking responsibility for their investment decisions, and ensuring that local authorities are able to provide practical assistance to homeowners who lose their home as a result of erosion? If not how could this be done?
• How should the payment mechanism for the demolition and moving assistance grant work? What evidence should be provided to Defra to support a claim for demolition and moving costs?

Views are being sought for other ideas on adapting to the effects of coastal change, including:

• How local businesses should be supported
• Adaptation options for important heritage sites on our coastline
• How to plan for changes to roads and other key infrastructure

The consultation also provides details of a new coastal change pathfinder programme which the Government is intending to establish. Bids are to be invited from coastal local authorities interested in becoming coastal change pathfinders. Pathfinders would be able to explore some of the ideas and approaches set out in the consultation.

Graham said: “The Government should be congratulated for finally getting to grips with this issue. Greg Knight MP and Councillors Jonathan Owen and Jane Evison and I have met repeatedly with Ministers to urge them to do more to protect the interests of those who lose their homes and businesses because of coastal erosion.

“At the moment someone who loses their house has to pay the cost of its demolition. This adds insult to injury and can’t be justified. So I am pleased that the Government seems to have accepted our arguments and Ministers have been so willing to listen.

“However, they need to go further than this. We need adequate compensation for the loss of a home if it has previously been defended and is no longer being defended as a result of a change in Government policy.”

The consultation can be viewed by logging onto www.defra.gov.uk

Story in the Driffield Post

As sea levels threaten a number of historic properties, the government is considering ways to protect them.

Historic monuments that are threatened with destruction could be moved in exceptional circumstances to a “more sustainable location”, according to a consultation paper released by the Department for the Environment. Coastal defences should be improved in less severe cases and valuable assets recorded in case they are lost forever, it says.

Owners of homes which will be lost to the sea could receive grants to cover demolition and moving costs.

This week the Met Office will warn of the threat of rising sea levels to Britain over the next 80 years.

It is expected to warn that sea levels could rise by as much as 80cm (31 inches) around the British coast by 2100, causing the flooding of low lying areas such as Norfolk. Storm surge events around the coast could occur 20 times more frequently for some coastal areas making erosion damage worse.

There is precedent for historic buildings to be dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere. The 17th Century Clavell Tower, at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset was recently moved 25 metres inland at a cost of £898,000. At St Fagans National History Museum in Cardiff buildings a school, chapel, Workmen’s Institute, farms and houses have been re-erected.

Hundreds of monuments around the British coast are at risk of sea level rises and erosion and could be candidates for relocation. St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall which is currently reached by a causeway could become an inaccessible island, Westbury Court Garden in Gloucestershire could be flooded by the River Severn and Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumbria is under threat from erosion.

An English Heritage spokesman said: “Future sea-level rise as a result of climate change and associated coastal erosion and flooding will threaten many historic buildings, sites and landscapes. While it may be possible to protect some of these, others will need to be adapted to withstand changing conditions and, over time, others will be lost.”

Defra also launched an £11 million Coastal Change Fund for local authorities to help local communities adapt to coastal erosion where it is not possible to hold the sea back with defences.

Councils could pay for houses that could be lost to the sea to be demolished and offer a further £1,000 to help people move house. Local authorities could also buy properties at risk and then lease them back to the owners to prevent coastal homes becoming neglected or abandoned as people are afraid of the long term risks.

According to Defra, some 200 homes could be lost to the sea over the next 20 years, though more are likely to be at risk over the longer term as a result of climate change.

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said coastal communities need to be prepared.

“Coastal change and erosion threatens our coastal communities – and with a changing climate, those risks will only increase.

“We will defend where we can, and we’re investing record amounts in protecting people and property.

“But the sea will inevitably shape and mould our coastline, as it has always done, and we need the views of those who will be directly affected by the changing coastline on how we can adapt.”

The consultation, which runs until September, also invites views on how to protect the natural landscape and coastal heritage.

The Environment Agency welcomed the proposals as a “step in the right direction” to help the homes and businesses threatened by coastal erosion, but said the Coastal Change Fund should have been developed further.

Story by Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent in the Telegraph

The government last night announced a raft of new ideas aimed at helping people who lose their homes to coastal erosion – but campaigners said that although the plans had merit, they still fell short of the full compensation package necessary.

Launching a three-month consultation into coastal change policy, Defra officials said they would create a new pot of £11m to help investigate how to address change. Local authorities could bid to become coastal change ‘pathfinders’ and access some of the money.

The Defra consultation will also discuss providing cash to meet certain costs of demolition and moving house for those faced with losing their homes to erosion.

But the suggested figures look to be limited to a maximum of £1,000 to cover removals and redirection of post and up to £5,000 to cover knocking down the threatened property. It would not extend to covering the value of homes, even if they had been previously defended and were now subject to damaged or removed sea defences, a key demand of coastal campaigners in recent years.

The documents make mention of the possibility of fuller compensation for people losing their homes and businesses, but this is not Defra’s ‘preferred option’.

Last night, leading coastal campaigner Malcom Kerby, coordinator of the Happisburgh-based Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG), said the consultation was “a significant step forward and a clear acknowledgment from government of the problems which exist”.

“I agree with much of what is said in the consultation documents, in fact I am pleased that much of the information within them comes from the input we at CCAG have had with the government over the last few years,” added Mr Kerby.

“It doesn’t go far enough by any means, but at least the government has recognised there is a hole in the system that people are dropping through; they cannot deny that exists anymore. It is a step in the right direction and to some extent I take heart from it.”

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, who chairs an all-party parliamentary group into coastal and marine issues, said: “If you are on the front line of this and you are told all you will get is the cost of demolition – which in north Norfolk is already paid for by the local authority – plus a little money to help you move house, it is insulting.

“This falls fatally short of what should happen, which is adequate compensation for the loss of a home if it has been previously defended and is no longer defended following a change in policy.

“The document mentions compensation but fails to advocate it – and that’s deeply disappointing.

“Yes, there is a recognition of the need to address the impact of this issue on communities, but that’s not enough.”

Environment secretary Hilary Benn said: “The sea will inevitably shape and mould our coastline, as it has always done, and we need the views of those who will be directly affected by the changing coastline on how we can adapt.”

To take part in the consultation, log on to www.defra.gov.uk

Story by Ed Foss in the Eastern Daily Press