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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the management and erosion of Dawlish Warren spit; and the future level of coastal protection required for settlements on the Exe estuary.

The Environment Agency made an assessment of risk as part of the Exe Estuary FCERM Strategy 2014, collaborating with stakeholders including the public. It identified that Dawlish Warren affects the FCERM (Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management) of the wider estuary and that existing defences were unsustainable. The Strategy also identified that improvements were needed in Exmouth and Starcross, which have been delivered.

The 2017 Dawlish Warren Beach Management Scheme included new defences, beach recharge, groyne works, and the removal of relic gabion (Rock) baskets. To enable natural evolution, a planning condition identified that remaining groyne, geotube and relic gabion defences be removed by 2049.

Habitat creation schemes in the Exe were not delivered as they were deemed either not acceptable or uneconomic, but schemes have since been delivered in the Otter estuary. Works to deliver improvements at Powderham and Topsham are ongoing.

The future management of Dawlish Warren will be confirmed as part of an update to the current Strategy by 2028. Stakeholder and community engagement is planned from 2026. This update will review the current Strategy, re-assessing the risk and improvements required to protect communities, infrastructure and the environment over the next 100 years following updated Government guidance.