Strategy will abandon homes to their fate

12 March 2008
 
Hundreds of people living near the Humber Estuary could lose their homes to flooding, under a new Environment Agency proposal.

The EA is to spend £320M on flood defences in the area, but not all homes will be protected from the expected rise in sea levels. In the Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy the agency admits ‘there will be losers as well as winners’.

It says there are ‘difficult decisions’ to be made, due to limited funds, and that properties are most likely to be affected in 12 areas where defences won’t be updated, despite a predicted increase in rainfall and a 0.3m rise in sea levels in the next 50 years.

The strategy, which comes after more than 10 years of study, introduces sites for managed realignment and flood storage, as well as protecting unique wildlife habitats and key infrastructure, such as power stations.

‘We will stop maintaining a defence if the cost of carrying on will be more than the value of the property it protects, or if it needs to be improved but we can’t fund the work,’ says the report. ‘When this happens, we will give property owners reasonable notice of our intentions, generally at least two years, but longer when we can.’

The EA will not be giving out compensation to those affected but will, instead, offer advice on ‘what homeowners can do in the circumstances’. This could include flood proofing their home, building their own defences, or moving out.

Humber strategies manager, Philip Winn, said: ‘We do have some difficult decisions to make because we can only raise flood defences to maintain existing walls where there is a real justification for doing so.’ The strategy is to be reviewed every five years.

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