Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to protect the coast in North Norfolk constituency from erosion.

Over £200 million has been invested in Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) projects in Norfolk since 2010, protecting 15,500 properties. Two major coast protection schemes are currently underway in North Norfolk, at Mundesley and Cromer, funded through Government FCERM Grant in Aid. These two schemes, with a forecast total cost of £30 million, will better protect 600 homes from coastal erosion and climate change over this century.

Funding for these schemes have come about through a close working partnership between North Norfolk District Council and the local Environment Agency team who work together to find affordable and environmentally sound solutions to the challenges facing the coast. They also work together on the Anglian Coastal Monitoring Programme which began in 1990 and is one of the longest running regional scale Government funded coastal monitoring programmes in the world. The output of this programme is essential for both the technical design of engineering solutions and providing robust, evidence-based policies for sustainable coastal management into the long term.

North Norfolk is also benefitting from approximately £15 million funding through the Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme, delivered locally through the Coastwise project, trialling innovative approaches to adapt to the impacts of climate change and coastal erosion. The Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme aims to speed up strategic and action planning on how coastal local authorities, partners and communities will address the long-term plan of moving communities, businesses and resources away from the coast at risk. The programme is supporting the trial of early on-the-ground actions for medium and long-term plans. This will allow coastal areas at serious risk to address the challenges a changing climate creates.