Coastal communities across the region could soon bid for a slice of government money to help rejuvenate their area, it emerged last night.

The chancellor of the exchequer and chief secretary to the treasury will today announce the launch of a Coastal Communities Fund, which will support a wide range of projects.

The multi-million-pound fund is designed to support the economic development of coastal communities and will be available on a bid basis. (more…)

Plans for a “DIY” pot of cash to help tackle coastal erosion problems around Norfolk are being promoted by two local MPs.

Under the scheme local people would pay a small sum – such as £5 a year – from their council tax which would be ring-fenced for coastal schemes ranging from emergency defences to projects to help erosion hit communities adapt to the changes affecting them.

It was first mooted last year by North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb when he put it to environment minister Richard Benyon during his visit to the area to see the impact of erosion and the measures trying to mitigate it, and which saw him show an interest in plan.

Now Mr Lamb and Great Yarmouth MP Brandon Lewis have met with decentralisation minister Greg Clark, who has also given his backing to the idea. (more…)

Minister for Decentralisation, Greg Clark, has given his backing to a plan put forward by North Norfolk MP, Norman Lamb, to provide extra funds for managing the coastline in Norfolk and protecting coastal communities. Great Yarmouth MP, Brandon Lewis has also been instrumental in promoting the proposal with Government ministers.

The two Norfolk MPs met with Greg Clark this week to get government backing for a scheme which could provide fresh hope for coastal villages and towns in the county. (more…)

Environment minister Richard Benyon took a fact finding tour of Norfolk and Suffolk’s erosion-scoured coastline to hear about the problems it causes for resident and communities.

Ministers come and go at erosion hot spots with the same certainty as the tides which eat away at the crumbling cliffs.

The latest Whitehall “suit” to visit the shoreline came to find out more about how communities are coping with current coastal management strategies which see many established defences being abandoned, leaving villages in fear and blighted by plunging property prices. (more…)

For Malcolm Kerby climate change is no distant threat to the Third World. He lives where it is already ruining lives… in Britain.

His home is in the small village of Happisburgh on the North Norfolk coast where the shore is retreating, battered by increasingly ferocious rising seas.

“This is the front line of climate change in Britain,” he says. “We can’t deny it. It’s happening. We see it with our own eyes.” (more…)

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. (more…)

Campaigners have given a cautious welcome to government plans to relax rules allowing more developments in areas of East Anglia at risk of coastal erosion.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is considering removing the blanket ban on building in under-threat areas to boost local economies.

While development such as housing will still be forbidden, temporary schemes which could boost tourism and recreation could be allowed under the proposed changes. (more…)

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. (more…)

Coastal Concern Action Group, based in Happisburgh on the North Norfolk coast, held a meeting in their parish church on Friday attended by around 200 people, celebrating ten years of the founding of the group, and their achievements during that period.

After a welcome from Rev Philip Wood, Diana Wrightson, one of the members of the CCAG steering group, recapped the circumstances that led to a similar meeting held in St Mary’s Church ten years ago to discuss the issue of worsening coastal erosion of Happisburgh’s cliffs. Following that meeting CCAG was set up under the leadership of their Co-ordinator Malcolm Kerby.

Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk then explained the political impact that CCAG had brought about through its policy of constructive dialogue rather than direct confrontation, and the scope of the influence that the group now received. He also summarised the current position that although there was currently no sign of change of a policy on defending the coast, there had been changes in attitude to the possibility of  ‘compensation’, and that the campaigning of CCAG had been a large factor in that change. (more…)

Homeowners threatened with losing their properties to coastal erosion have been given a “groundbreaking” ray of hope of compensation.

A government minister has signalled to Norfolk campaigners that payouts could be on the cards to individuals whose seaside homes are lost through failing and abandoned defences.

The breakthrough has been welcomed by those on the front-line who have been battling for preferably better defences or, if not, social justice for those facing seeing their homes tumbling with the crumbling cliffs. (more…)