Written evidence submitted by the Coastal Group Network (CWR0020)

Stewart Rowe

Chair of the Coastal Group Network

Coastal Group Network Response to the EFRA Climate and Weather Resilience Inquiry

Coastal Groups bring together England’s key partners in flood defence and coastal management, principally coastal managers from maritime local authorities, port authorities and the Environment Agency. Other interested organisations such as Natural England, English Heritage, RFCCs, land owners, and Defra are also members.

There are 7 coastal groups in England, North East, East Anglian, South East, Southern, South West, Severn Estuary and the North West.

Coastal Groups lead on Shoreline Management Plans, the Strategic Coastal monitoring Programme and have oversight of the National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping.

Coastal Groups are voluntary with significant strategic influence. They do not receive funding from central Government but are resourced through membership contributions.

What is the scale and nature of the risks posed by coastal erosion and landslips to communities, the economy and the environment? 

• Shoreline Management Plans provide policy and management approaches on England’s coast.
• 3500 properties are at risk of loss to erosion by 2055 this rises to approximately 10,000 by 2105 with SMP policies implemented
• Without SMP policy implementation this rises to about 33,000 properties by 2055
• Large amounts of utility infrastructure, agricultural land, roads, rail are at risk
• Displacement of people, damage to infrastructure, environmental and ecological losses and social and heritage loss and impacts on mental and physical health will all increase with climate change.
• Estimates vary but the predicted value of property that could be lost by 2100 are around £550m

What strategies are currently in place, or needed, to reduce the risks of landslips and coastal erosion, and what research gaps exist? What policies are in place nationally and locally, such as within the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Strategy, for mitigation of hazards associated with landslips and coastal erosion? How effective and well-resourced are they and what types of impacts are considered within the policy framework?  

• Shoreline Management Plans provide a strategic overview of coastal management policy and management approaches.
• Sitting below the SMPs are Coastal Strategies which set out options and a preferred approach to deliver the SMP policy.
• The preferred options are the subject of business cases to attract grant in aid, ultimately leading to capital works or other interventions when required.
• Where adaptation is required, this is not currently grant aidable, this is a gap in the management of our coast. Research into what the form and cost of adaptation is ongoing in various locations, lessons learnt from these programmes must be brought to account in forming new Govt policy on adapting to coastal change.
• The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy sets out a long-term framework for coastal risk management.
• The National Coastal Erosion Risk Map (NCERM) includes coastal instability and erosion data and allows users to consider various climate change scenarios.
• The National Strategic Coastal Monitoring Programme collects erosion, wave, habitat, defence condition data to support flood and coastal management.
• SMP policies include “hold the line” where Risk Management Authorities endeavour to maintain or upgrade existing defences, “managed retreat” of the defence line, and “No active intervention” of capital works on natural coastlines.
• However, SMP policy delivery is not fully funded it is rather an intent to undertake certain actions. Actual delivery of the policy is subject to funding availability, at present there are insufficient funds or to meet future requirements to deliver the SMP policies along the English coast.
• SMP policy delivery exists and is a robust way forward but it is not supported by funding or accurately costed.
• To mitigate the impacts of coastal change a step change in funding approach is required, not in the methodology of distribution, but in the adequacy of the total funding coast protection budget.
• Meeting the financial challenge would be greatly assisted by improved cross Government sector coordination between highways, rail, housing, environment, planning, emergency services and local government.
• Prevention of risk creation through improved planning, better materials, nature-based solutions, strict controls on coastal development to improve resilience over the longer term.

What are the social, economic, and psychological impacts of landslips and coastal erosion on affected communities? And how can these be addressed? 

• The gradual but inevitable arrival of coastal erosion creates displacement, loss of homes and infrastructure, loss of social connection, and identity.
• The economic loss of assets, livelihoods, the increasing costs of defence maintenance and increasing pressure on Risk Management Authority budgets all combine to evidence that doing nothing is not a zero-cost option to UK PLC.
• These could be addressed by erosion insurance (landslip cover is already available), improved monitoring and early warning of hazards.

Is there sufficient support available to those who have sustained damage or loss of property due to landslips or coastal erosion, and are items such as financial compensation, relocation assistance, and wellbeing services considered in this support? 

• Very little FCERM support exists, only a £6k grant to assist with the costs of demolition.
• Local Authorities ultimately shoulder the burden of managing the impacts of damage or loss due to coastal change, they do this in a wide range of uncoordinated and disparate ways which are costly locally dependant and nationally inconsistent.
• The Governments position is that there is no compensation for property loss due to coastal erosion. Coastal erosion being a natural process.
• The true future whole life cost of property loss is something that should be researched as it would influence cost benefit analyses.

Are emergency services and local authorities sufficiently resourced and trained to respond to the increasing risks of landslips and coastal erosion linked to extreme weather events, particularly in rural, coastal and hard-to-reach areas? 

• Extreme weather stretches local authority and emergency services ability to respond, storms in particular such as Babet are a significant drain on resources. This combined with travel distances, thinly spread services will make assistance to remote and rural areas increasingly difficult.
• The funding that is available to manage coastal risk is often hard to access or often comes with restrictions and conditions. Flexible use of the funding is also restricted.
• Capital funding for new construction is often available but revenue funding for maintenance is not and an easy budgetary reduction leading to fast deterioration of assets which then in turn require capital improvements.

To what extent is the protection of and access to significant natural landscapes and heritage sites being undermined due to coastal erosion or landslips, what are the impacts of this, and how could this be addressed? 

• Many sites such as Castles as identified by English Heritage are at risk, geological sites of interest will be lost such as along the Jurassic coast and hundreds of square kilometres of habitat are being lost.
• This could be addressed by relocation, hard and soft engineering, cliff stabilisation measures, adaptive approaches, improved planning and community involvement.
• Our approach to costs and benefits may need to be reassessed, the benefits of intervention verses allowing natural processes to continue.
• Ultimately any approach will require trade offs between competing priorities, however land and historic assets that are lost to erosion are irreplaceable.
• Perhaps we need a step change in how we manage coastal risk, not a change in the grant allocation methodology but a revaluation into what as a society is important to us today and into the future.
• Often it seems we lose sight of the fact that we all live on a small island surrounded by quite a hostile marine environment, land once lost has an extrapolated cost into the future that is almost incalculable,  a permanent loss to UK PLC.

October 2025