Twenty-eighth Report Adapting Institutions to Climate Change Cm ...

Chapter 3
‘no active intervention’ or ‘managed realignment’ in some cases where previously the decision had
been to ‘hold the line’. This means that low-lying, sparsely populated areas which once benefited
from coastal defences cannot necessarily expect the same level of protection in the future. This
gives rise to difficult issues about balancing efficiency in the use of public resources with the
equity of changing arrangements on which local people have come to rely, as we discuss below.
3.79 Making Space for Water also committed the Government to work more closely with communities
to help manage coastal risks. Up to £28 million of Defra’s Comprehensive Spending Review
settlement for the period 2008-11 was made available to support communities to adapt to
flooding and coastal erosion. 68 Funding was made available for a variety of projects; for example,
to improve the level of public information about risks, the Environment Agency published flood
risk maps and shoreline management plans, and a £5 million grant scheme was established to help
individual households introduce resistance and resilience measures to protect themselves from
flood risks. 69 Planning Policy Statement 25 on development and flood risk incorporated a new
risk-based approach to development in flood risk areas. 70
3.80 The current Flood and Water Management Bill will require the Environment Agency (for England)
and the Welsh Ministers (for Wales) to develop and apply an integrated flood risk and coastal
erosion risk management strategy (see the discussion at 3.67 above). As noted previously, this
will have to include specific consideration of the current and predicted impact of climate change
on flood risk and coastal erosion risk management. In preparing its strategy, the Environment
Agency would be obliged to consult with the public.
3.81
3.82
3.83
In Scotland, coastal erosion is not covered by the Flood Risk Management Act 2009. Matters
pertaining to coastal erosion are therefore covered by the national framework (the Coast Protection
Act 1949). Primary responsibility rests with the local authorities, subject sometimes to approval
from the Scottish Government and the possibility of receiving grant aid in part.
The mechanism for guiding decisions about coastal protection is the shoreline management plan
(SMP). We note that in practice SMPs are non-statutory strategic documents rather than operational
management tools. SMPs are intended to provide an assessment of the risks involved with coastal
processes and to develop a strategic and long-term policy framework within which the risks can
be reduced in a sustainable manner. First-generation SMPs were introduced in the mid-1990s and
their strategic and co-ordinated approach to coastal management was seen as a welcome change
to the previous piecemeal system. Collectively they cover the entire 6,000 km of coast in England
and Wales and are designed to be reviewed at five-yearly intervals to ensure advances in scientific
research and alignment to national policy are taken into account. After a period of consultation
with the relevant stakeholders, Defra published updated policy guidance for SMPs in 2001. 71 The
guidance concluded that first-generation SMPs were excellent high-level strategic documents but
additional research was required into how future coastlines would change.
Since SMPs were first introduced, several major studies have led to a re-examination of shoreline
management (including Futurecoast, 72 the Foresight study73 and strategic flood risk assessments
carried out by local authorities and the UK Climate Impacts Programme). As a consequence,
the second generation of SMPs are currently being formulated (SMP2s). It is hoped that SMP2s
will offer decision-makers a ‘route map’ assisting them to progress from the current situation
towards meeting short-term (0-20 years), medium-term (20-50 years) and long-term (50-100
years) needs.
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