On 20 March 2026, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published its report, Climate and Weather Resilience: Coastal Erosion, marking the first output of a long-term inquiry into the UK's readiness for extreme weather. This report is a critical document for the flood industry, as it shifts the focus from purely technical engineering challenges to the profound social and financial human toll facing coastal communities. Based on evidence from local authorities, the Environment Agency, and affected individuals, the inquiry warns that the current system of coastal management is fractured, underfunded, and failing to protect the people it serves.
The committee’s findings emphasise that coastal erosion is not merely a planning issue but a burgeoning mental health crisis. Beyond the physical loss of 10,100 properties projected over the next 80 years, communities are experiencing "deep grief, anger, fear, and anxiety." The report highlights heartbreaking secondary impacts, such as the potential loss of four graveyards in North Norfolk and the rise of "trauma tourism," where social media creators pick through the remains of abandoned homes. For professionals in the sector, the report makes it clear that the success of a project should no longer be measured solely by hectares of land saved, but by the preservation of social cohesion and community mental well-being.
A significant portion of the report addresses the regulatory gap in how at-risk properties are bought and sold. Currently, the estate agent and conveyancing processes do not consistently disclose erosion risks, leaving buyers - particularly those not using a mortgage - completely unaware of the threat. The committee recommends that coastal erosion risk must be legally classified as "material information" in all property transactions, with mandatory signposting to the National Coastal Erosion Risk Map (NCERM).
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Furthermore, the inquiry identifies a stark inequality in financial protection. While Flood Re has successfully made flood insurance accessible, no such safety net exists for coastal erosion. The committee has formally recommended that Defra commissions a review into a government-backed insurance product specifically for erosion and landslides to prevent the total financial wipeout of households in at-risk zones.
For industry practitioners, the report’s critique of the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) funding model is particularly relevant. The committee argues that current cost-benefit ratios are biased toward inland flooding and fail to capture the true value of coastal tourism, historical assets, and mental health. Notably, the report calls the existing £6,000 Coastal Erosion Assistance Grant "arbitrary" and woefully inadequate, given that modern demolition costs now range between £25,000 and £35,000.
The committee recommends a complete overhaul of this grant by April 2027 and a shift away from selective piloting toward a permanent national strategy for property relocation and rollback. This would move the industry away from temporary, high-maintenance defences toward a long-term, funded model of adaptive transition.
The report concludes with a call for better coordination between government departments, specifically Defra and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). A major technical recommendation is the statutory integration of Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) into Local Plans. Currently, many planning decisions are made on 10-to-15-year cycles, which completely ignore the 100-year "epochs" defined in SMPs. By December 2026, the committee expects a costed roadmap to ensure that local planning is legally required to align with long-term coastal reality. For the flood industry, this represents a move toward a more joined-up approach where engineering, planning, and social support finally operate as a single, resilient framework.
Read the full report by clicking here.
[Main image: Hemsby, Norkolk UK 5th January 2023, credit Sean Aidan Calderbank / shutterstock.com]