Power to decide how best to protect crumbling coastal land will be given to local communities, the chairman of the Environment Agency (EA) has pledged.

Lord Smith, who was the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Suffolk Coast Against Retreat (SCAR) group at the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh on Saturday, has, however, warned that people would need to need to come up with money and well as “imaginative” ideas as government budgets for flood defence projects are squeezed.

The former cabinet minister told landowners, local councillors and representatives of coastal groups that the EA was committed to cutting bureaucracy and enabling defence schemes – and he offered a personal pledge to investigate failings.

“The ‘we know best’ approach doesn’t wash these days,” he said. “There will be times when we don’t get it right, and if you experience that, then come to me.” (more…)

Communities threatened by coastal erosion have been warned that they should expect to contribute towards protection schemes.

Speaking prior to next month’s Suffolk Coast Against Retreat (SCAR) annual general meeting (AGM), chairman Graham Henderson said that in the current financial climate it was unlikely the Government would completely fund defence work on behalf of homeowners, such as those living in Corton and Easton Bavents, near Southwold.

Mr Henderson, who lives at Felixstowe Ferry, said: “Overall I think it has been a progressive year. However we are still in a situation where the Government has not revealed all its cards and there’s no doubt that there’s going to be a shortage of money. (more…)

Home owners who face losing their East Anglian properties to coastal erosion were offered the hope of receiving proper compensation last night.

The chairman of the Environment Agency has suggested that the government sets up a buy and lease scheme along the region’s coast.

Lord Smith said that authorities such as North Norfolk District Council should be given funding to purchase and then lease back up to 250 homes that are likely to fall into the sea in the next 20 years. (more…)

The chairman of the Environment Agency Lord Smith has unveiled a radical plan to help hundreds of homeowners threatened by coastal erosion.

The coastlines of Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire have been particularly vulnerable to the sea with many losing their homes without compensation.

Lord Smith has told BBC Look East local councils should buy up homes threatened by the sea and then lease them back. (more…)

Hundreds of homes on cliffs around Britain should be bought by the Government because climate change is accelerating the pace of coastal erosion, according to the head of the Environment Agency.

In an interview with The Times, Lord Smith of Finsbury said that some parts of the coastline were now impossible to defend and it was unfair that people should lose their homes through no fault of their own.

Local authorities should be given the funding to buy vulnerable houses at a rate based on their original value rather than the market value, he said. They would then lease them back to the owners until the property became uninhabitable. (more…)

Ministers are looking at whether property owners should be compensated if coastal areas have to be yielded to the rising sea because of climate change.

Environment Agency (EA) chairman Lord Smith told MPs that some of the coast would have to be surrendered. He told the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs select committee that the EA had also advised the Government that the issue of compensation ‘needs to be seriously looked at’. (more…)

As fears grow of a metre sea level rise by the end of the century, the Environment Agency has told Sky News Online it is impossible to defend all of Britain’s coastline.

Many places along the UK’s East Coast will become particularly vulnerable to flooding. (more…)

Coastal campaigners from Norfolk have had an “encouraging” meeting with the man in charge of the nation’s flood defences.

A group of politicians, councillors from the north and east coasts and residents of seaside and low-lying Broads villages met Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith yesterday.

Afterwards an upbeat North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said he was very encouraged by the comments they heard. (more…)

A FRESH call will be made for the Government to carry out an investigation into whether offshore dredging has contributed to large losses of land on the East Riding coast.

In the past year, unprecedented chunks of cliff measuring almost three times the length of a double-decker bus have disappeared into the sea. (more…)

AREAS of the Suffolk coast will not be abandoned “unless it is absolutely necessary”, the chairman of the Environment Agency said yesterday as he held a series of meetings with groups concerned at plans to stop maintaining some of the estuary defences.

Lord Smith, who was flown by helicopter up the coast from Bawdsey to Easton Bavents, said he wanted the agency to work with local communities to identify the best solutions and find funding from a variety of possible sources.

“We want to make sure we protect as much as possible. We need to agree solutions for each individual estuary. I certainly don’t want to abandon anything unless we absolutely have to,” he said. (more…)