In April 2008 we became the lead organisation responsible for all flood and erosion risk management around the coastline of England.
The new role is a ‘first’, giving us a unique opportunity to lead the country in developing a coastal management plan that works at local, regional and national level. Our partner orgnisations, including local authorities, will put agreed plans into practical action. We will support them by giving Grant-in-Aid (GiA) funding and overseeing the work carried out.
Planning for good coastal management
Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) are the backbone of our coastal management work. The 31 SMPs cover the entire coastline of England and Wales, providing the latest information on coastal changes, including social, economic and environmental data. They also contain flood and coastal erosion risk management policies for 20, 50 and 100 years into the future.
Currently, local authorities are revising 26 SMPs and the Environment Agency the remaining five, ready for 2010.
Estuary plans are at varying stages of consultation and completion. As with SMPs, these take account of the physical condition of an estuary as well as the social and economic impacts various policies for coastal defence management will have.
Legal tools for the job
Planning Policy Statement 25 (PPS25) guides local planning authorities, dissuading consents for non-essential development on land prone to flooding from rivers and the sea. We are a statutory consultee, with the power to call in an application to the Secretary of State and planning inquiry.
Planning Policy Guidance 20 (PPG20) is under revision. We expect the new version will similarly limit development, but specifically in erosion-prone areas. Again we expect to have statutory consultee status.
Helping communities adapt to change
In partnership with Defra and Communities for Local Government (CLG), we are preparing a toolkit that considers financial aid, planning choices, community self-help and social justice issues. All of these are important in encouraging and supporting people severely affected by coastal flooding or erosion to either move or accept the threat of increased risk.
Clear, direct communication
Getting communities and organisations involved at the earliest stages of decision-making is important. We want them to understand how we arrive at our views, and to invite them to contribute their opinion. Where there are difficult decisions to make, we will explain the risk to local people, setting out the advantages and disadvantages implicit in each course of action. Decisions will follow full and open debate, with good opportunity for the communities at risk to take part in consultation.
Our job is as much to bring organisations and people together to resolve coastal flood and erosion difficulties as it is to take responsibility for final courses of action. We all have a part to play in the nation’s plans for coastal management, but responsibility for good stewardship and the successful direction of coastal flood and erosion risk management plans rests unquestionably with the Environment Agency.
Coastal erosion in Wales
In Wales, local authorities manage coastal erosion, and both they and the Environment Agency have the powers to provide coastal flood defences.
Overall policy responsibility for flood and coastal erosion management rests with the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG). It aims to achieve similar outcomes to England, but without making any changes to existing arrangements for managing the coast. WAG provides all the funding for managing flooding and grants aids capital works for coastal erosion.
