These are the houses that can not be saved, or which would be very expensive to try to save, with measures such as sea walls and other coastal defenses. Some of the areas most at risk include North Somerset, Sedgemoor, Wyre, North East Lincolnshire and Swale. The study comes after warnings last week from the head of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan, that many homes would be impossible or uneconomical to save and entire communities would have to move inland, which he called “the harshest of all uncomfortable truths “. . Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST The value of the houses in danger is tens of billions of pounds and the rising sea level that will cause the floods is now almost inevitable, given the increasing rate of climate collapse. Sea levels around the English coast are projected to be about 35 inches higher by 2050. In addition, the coasts are eroding, leading to higher waves, especially when there are storms. The estimate for nearly 200,000 homes and businesses at risk of being abandoned comes from researchers at the Tyndall Center at the University of East Anglia, published in the journal Oceans and Coastal Management. Paul Sayers, the lead author of the paper, said: “A significant rise in sea level is now inevitable. For many of our larger coastal cities, protection will continue to be provided, but for some coastal communities this may not be possible. “We need a serious national debate about the magnitude of the threat in these communities and what constitutes a fair and sustainable response, including how to help people relocate.” Bevan told a conference last week: “In the long run, climate change means that some of our communities – both in this country and around the world – can not stay where they are. This is because while we can safely return and build better after most river floods, there is no return for land removed by coastal erosion or which sea level rise has permanently or often submerged ». He added: “In some places the right answer – economically, strategically and humanely – should be to keep communities out of danger rather than trying to protect them from the inevitable effects of rising sea levels.” Previous estimates of the number of homes at risk have been lower, as government estimates are not in line with climate science. In 2018, the Climate Change Commission warned that about a third of the UK coastline was at risk. Jim Hall, a professor of climate and environmental risk at Oxford University who did not participate in the latest study, said: sea level. “These changes are coming sooner than we imagine and we need to plan now how we can adapt, including a national strategic approach to deciding how to manage the coast in a sustainable way in the future.”
