‘The hardest of all inconvenient truths’: inevitable climate impacts will mean some coastal communities cannot stay where they are, Environment Agency warns

Some coastal communities will have to be moved away from danger caused by the “inevitable impacts of a rising sea level”, Environment Agency chief executive Sir James Bevan will warn today. 

In a speech at the Flood and Coast Conference in Telford, Sir James will launch the Environment Agency’s new FCERM Strategy Roadmap. The Roadmap sets out the practical actions the Environment Agency and partners will take to tackle the growing threat of flooding from rivers, the sea, and surface water as well as coastal erosion.  

In relation to climate adaptation and keeping people out of harm’s way, he will say: 

“In the long term, climate change means that some of our communities – both in this country and around the world - cannot stay where they are.  

“That is because while we can come back safely and build back better after most river flooding, there is no coming back for land that coastal erosion has taken away or which a rising sea level has put permanently or frequently under water.  

“Which means that in some places the right answer - in economic, strategic and human terms - will have to be to move communities away from danger rather than to try and protect them from the inevitable impacts of a rising sea level.”

Sir James will go on to emphasise that the aim should be to ensure that wherever possible we help our coastal communities remain where they are and thrive; and that any eventual decisions must take full account of the views of the local community.

Sir James will make his speech as the Environment Agency launches its FCERM (Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management) Strategy Roadmap, setting out actions that will be taken over the next four years to deliver a nation ready for, and resilient to, flooding and coastal change.  

Actions will include producing a new national assessment of flood risk, an updated national coastal erosion risk map and new long term investment scenarios, to better inform future investment decisions. 

Alongside a record £5.2 billion investment in some 2,000 new projects to better protect communities by 2027, £150 million is being invested through the Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme to support 25 pioneering projects to tackle the threat of flood and coastal change in innovative ways, and earlier this year the Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme was launched, providing up to £36 million in funding to communities in North Norfolk and the East Riding of Yorkshire to help them prepare and adapt to coastal change.

Action taken by the Environment Agency, government, and partners has delivered significant progress over recent years. £2.6 billion was invested between 2015-2021 to better protected more than 314,000 homes – a programme delivered on time, on budget, and above target – and despite heavier rainfall and more frequent storms in recent years, proportionately fewer properties have flooded.