Central and local government should consider re-housing families whose coastline homes are at risk from erosion, the new head of the Environment Agency has said.

Lord Smith of Finsbury has warned that plans should be drawn up to evacuate families from large stretches of the southeast and east coast of England, which are most at risk of long-term sea erosion. Norfolk and Suffolk are believed to feature highly on the list of exposed counties.

Lord Smith said work was already under way to identify which coastal areas of Britain are worth defending and which parts should be left for the sea to reclaim. These, he said, would be ‘hard decisions’ because it could mean that mass evacuations are appropriate. He wants public bodies to cover the cost of re-housing families most at risk.

‘We are almost certainly not going to be able to defend every bit of coast – it would be simply an impossible task both in financial and engineering terms,’ Lord Smith said.