Ministers have been urged to step in to help families whose homes are at imminent risk of collapsing into the sea on the fastest-eroding coastline in northern Europe.
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Parts of the 52-mile east Yorkshire coast are disappearing much faster than forecast. Rising sea levels and more frequent storms brought on by the global climate emergency have accelerated the erosion.
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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) provides up to £6,000 in retrospective funding towards the cost of demolishing each property, but Evison said the total bill was at least double that.
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Evison said ministers should treat coastal erosion like flooding, where significantly larger pots of funding are made available to local authorities, homeowners and businesses to cover the bill for damage. She said: “We know sea levels are rising. It’s going to accelerate. It’s an act of nature we have no control over. We think it isn’t a special case – it’s the same as flooding – so we should be able to bid for genuine costs to help keep people safe.”
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