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

To ask His Majesty's Government what funding, other than flood and coastal erosion risk management grant-in-aid, they make available to protect heritage assets and community spaces at risk from coastal erosion.

The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. This includes the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCIP). As part of FCIP, Ministers have allocated £36m over six years, to develop a ‘Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme’ to trial opportunities, and innovative practical actions, in a small number of coastal areas at significant risk of coastal erosion, to transition and adapt to a changing climate. The practical adaptation actions will likely include activities that support and facilitate the managed transition of property and facilities at risk of coast erosion providing an anticipatory approach in advance of coastal change.

The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), arm’s length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, awarded a £500,000 grant to English Heritage's Hurst Castle Stabilisation Feasibility Project (see attached) in 2022 to survey damage from coastal erosion and develop a plan to protect the castle for the long term. Further details of accessing NHMF grants can be found on the National Heritage Memorial Fund website.

Guidance on managing the impacts of coastal erosion on heritage features can be found on Historic England's website, alongside details of available grants for heritage.

The Third National Adaptation Programme (see attached) details how the Government and its agencies plan to protect cultural heritage from a changing climate, including implications for our coastal heritage due to flooding and coastal erosion.