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Country Land and Business Association

Flooding and coastal erosion in England

Flooding and coastal erosion in England

This is a crucial issue for thousands of households and businesses blighted by flooding, as recently seen in Cumbria, or coastal erosion. Thousands more may be threatened by future climate change.

The CLA is:

  • Involved in responses to all catchment flood and shoreline management plans,
  • Fighting for the right for landowners to protect themselves where Government has withdrawn from providing flood defences,
  • Lobbying for a system of spending on flood and coastal erosion prevention which is fair to rural areas,
  • Working to evolve creative ways in which land managers can help to reduce flooding in urban areas. 

For example, incentives are needed to reinstate wetland areas upstream of towns. These would hold water during heavy rain, reducing flooding and helping the environment. New washlands could reduce the effects of river flooding downstream.

News

Meeting with the Environment Agency. The CLA met with the Environment Agency to discuss common concerns about flooding. The CLA believes that landowners need to be empowered to carry out necessary works on flood defences in areas where there is deterioration and the public purse can no longer afford maintenance costs. (January 2010)

Meeting with Shadow Secretary of State Nick Herbert. The CLA met Mr Herbert and his advisers to explain how regulations and the policy framework could be altered to help landowners who are willing to spend on flood defences, to the benefit of the public.  We gave examples of how coastal communities had been helped in the past. (January 2010)

The Background
  • The eastern side of England is sinking by about 2-3 mm per year.
  • Sea levels are rising by around 6 mm per year.
  • Weather patterns seem to be bringing greater storminess and flash flooding. 

But Defra’s flood plans are based on a worst-case scenario where sea levels rise by over one metre. On this assumption many defences will be unsustainable and a policy of retreat should be adopted. 

 

Our view is that until we can be more certain of the future, we should adopt a precautionary principle and retain and maintain existing defences.

 

We also believe that the alternative to hard defences is not abandonment. Much more could be done in the way of soft defences, beach re-charging and other techniques, to stabilise the coastline.
The CLA is trying to encourage the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to look seriously at innovative new technology for flood defence from around the world. 
 
Defra is giving more weight to environmental factors and less to economic and social factors in its management of flood and coastal-erosion risk.  It is moving from a policy of ‘hold the line’ to 'no active intervention’ or ‘retreat’ in many rural areas. Large urban areas will continue to be defended from flooding. 
Present priorities for spending are largely based on the number of houses at risk and environmental considerations. They take little account of  lost land  and lost ability to produce future food, of salt water on inland water used for drinking and irrigation, historic features and business and community assets. Yet once a coastline is lost, it is gone forever.
 
The way the limited pot of money for flood and sea defences is spent results in a poor deal for rural areas and isolated villages.
Total spending on flood and coastal risk management is currently  (2010/11) £780m per year - about three days spending on the NHS. Figures from the Environment Agency show at least £1 billion per annum is required. Only a small percentage is spent maintaining flood defences and keeping waterways flowing freely.
 
Where it is not feasible to defend the coast, we are fighting for compensation for those whose land, businesses or homes will be lost for the greater public benefit.
    
For examples of CLA responses on catchment flood and shorline management plans, see

 

Example 1: Shoreline Management Plans

  

The CLA's thoughts on imaginative responses to flooding, together with members’ views of the causes and effects of the floods, can be read in our response to the Government’s review of the 2007 floods.
 
The CLA is working with the National Farmers' Union and the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group on a project (funded by Defra’s innovation fund) to explore economic alternatives for coastal landowners. The project is being undertaken on the Essex coast but will have implications for all areas of coast that will cease to be maintained by the government. Details of this project can be viewed on www.managingcoastalchange.co.uk.
 

Contacts and Feedback

Derek Holliday – Head of Environment

Lead adviser on European and national environmental issues including water quality (Water Framework Directive, Catchment Sensitive Farming, Nitrates Directive), water resources, fluvial and coastal defence, soil resource, climate change and fisheries.

Phone: 020 7235 0511
Fax:       020 7235 4696
Email:  derek.holliday@cla.org.uk