£36 million programme announced to help adapt to coastal erosion

As part of the government's £200 million flood and coast innovation programme, £36 million will be invested to explore innovative approaches of adapting to the effects of coastal erosion.

The Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme will focus initially on the areas of East Riding of Yorkshire and North Norfolk. Both local authorities will receive funding to help communities on areas of the coast that cannot sustainably be defended from coastal erosion.

Residents will be supported to prepare and plan for the long term, and also trialling some immediate actions that support the long-term resilience of communities near the coast.

Interventions might include:

• improving and replacing damaged community infrastructure, such as beach access or coastal transport links, and replacing public or community buildings in areas at risk with removable, modular or other innovative buildings;
• repurposing land in coastal erosion zones for different uses such as temporary car parks, and restoring and creating habitats to include green buffer zones;
• working with the finance and property sectors to explore finance or funding mechanisms to help move communities from the highest risk areas;
• developing the local planning system to support and facilitate the managed transition of communities from high-risk land and ensuring it restricts future development in areas affected by coastal erosion.

The programme will be run by the Environment Agency, supporting both areas as they develop and deliver their local projects, and ensuring that ongoing learning is shared with other areas facing similar challenges.

Floods Minister Rebecca Pow said: "As climate change brings more extreme weather, we must redouble our efforts to build a more resilient nation. We have ramped up flood and coastal erosion policies, and we will always defend our coastline where it is sustainable and sensible to do so. Where it isn’t we will support communities to adapt".

The programme will run to March 2027 and a full evaluation of the programme will help to inform future national policy direction and add to coastal resilience activity elsewhere. This includes a national coastal erosion risk map providing clearer data about local risks to help local planning, and the ongoing national refresh of existing Shoreline Management Plans.

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency said: "England’s coastline has never been static. Today, 9,000 kilometres of open English coast is at risk from sea flooding, erosion and landslips, and by 2100 once-a-century sea level events are set to become annual events".

"As a minimum, we need to plan for at least a metre rise of sea level rise by the end of the century. In some places the pace and scale of change may be so significant that, over a period of time, coastal authorities will need to help local communities transition away from the current shoreline over time".

"This programme is about providing that local support while increasing the whole country’s expertise and resilience in the face of climate and coastal change".