Flood and coastal erosion risk management in England

This is an enormously important issue for the thousands of households and businesses already threatened with flooding or coastal erosion and for the thousands more that may become threatened in future as our climate changes and our sea level rises.

Currently a number of our flood defences around the coast of England are in need of repair – a few being in serious decline. In the eastern region in particular the 1953 floods will surely happen again with resulting loss of lives, homes, valuable wildlife sites, historic buildings and devastation to the local economy, unless effective preventive action is taken.

Inland flooding is an even more common occurrence. Many homes and businesses across the country are blighted by threat of further devastation and an increasing number have difficulty getting insurance cover. Only a small percentage of the flood defence budget is currently being spent on maintaining inland flood defences and only 3% is devoted to keeping our waterways flowing freely.

The UK Government has no constitutional or statutory duty to protect the integrity of our coastline – contrast this to the situation in Holland and Germany . Already Defra has moved from planning flood 'defence' to talking about 'flood risk management' – a minor point one but one that reveals its underlying approach.

On 24 March 2005 Defra published "Making Space for Water: Taking forward a new Government strategy for flood & coastal erosion risk management"

This is an interim response to a consultation, to help Defra develop a more holistic flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy in England . As a result of the consultation exercise Defra better understands the consequences of flooding on individuals, businesses and property. However, Defra has also announced that it needs to do further work to develop its strategy, in particular to investigate the case for providing financial support to make properties more resistant and resilient, to examine the practicality of offering some financial assistance to those facing the loss of their property through coastal erosion, to develop "multi-criteria analyses" – ways of scoring one potential defence scheme against another – and to improve the effectiveness of Shoreline Management Plans.

Until this work is done, it will not be clear what changes the Government is proposing to existing flood and coastal defence policy, although it is clear that Defra wants to give more weight to environmental and social factors and less to economic factors, in setting the direction of future policy.

Such an approach could have major implications for the defence of our coastline and for fluvial defence. Once a coastline is lost, it is gone forever. Apart from the devastating effects for the individuals, families, businesses and communities immediately affected, such loss may have consequential effects on land lying behind the coast, and will almost certainly adversely affect the confidence of other local communities in the will of Government to meet the challenge of coastal defence.

Cost/benefit calculations that determine that Government should put off the task of securing the coastline until the last minute are inefficient and short-sighted. Once our defences have been neglected over a long period of time they will inevitably become much more costly to repair/replace – reducing the options available. The attitude should be 'a stitch in time save nine'.

CLA is not asking for hard defences everywhere, nor do we expect the whole of our coastline to be defended to current standards in the long term. But the alternative to hard defences is not abandonment. There is much more that could be done in the way of soft defences, including beach re-charging and other techniques, to stabilise the coastline in certain places (other countries do it) and a planned and managed approach to re-alignment of the coast.

Similarly, on fluvial flooding, CLA believes that there are opportunities for imaginative approaches, for example in the creation of wash lands, in agreement with landowners, that could alleviate the risk of expensive flood damage in some areas.

Contacts and Feedback

Tanya Olmeda-Hodge - Head of Environment
Lead adviser on European and national environmental issues such as climate change, water quality, flood defences, fisheries and the resources of soil, water and air.
tanya.olmeda-hodge@cla.org.uk

Phone: 020 7460 7911
FAX: 020 7235 4696

Latest News

Don't Ignore 'Domino Effect' Of Coastal Flooding Says CLA
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is concerned that the scoring system for prioritising protection of coastal areas will not always pick up the importance of defending coastal rural land in order to prevent sea defence breaches that may reach populated areas inland. At the launch of Defra's strategy for flood and coastal erosion risk management this morning, Environment Minister Elliot Morley gave welcome indication that the scoring system will be reviewed and refined - but the CLA contends this can't happen soon enough for some communities and businesses.

Defend Our Heritage By Defending Our Coast, Say CLA (21st March '05)
Ahead of the Government's release of its Flood Management Strategy, expected later this week, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is warning that the losses to the UK will be wider than agricultural land if the Government abandons our defences against coastal erosion and river flooding.

CLA Documents

CLA Conference in Norfolk, (March '04)
Sea-level Rise and Coastal Defence in the Southern North Sea

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