Bid to buy homes at risk from sea

Lord Smith says local councils should buy up homes threatened by the sea

The chairman of the Environment Agency Lord Smith has unveiled a radical plan to help hundreds of homeowners threatened by coastal erosion.

The coastlines of Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire have been particularly vulnerable to the sea with many losing their homes without compensation.

Lord Smith has told BBC Look East local councils should buy up homes threatened by the sea and then lease them back.

He said he was pressing the government to take up his proposal.

"If my proposal were accepted by the government they (householders) would be able to sell their property to the local authority," he said.

It is a small, modest proposal but really significant to those people with houses at serious risk Lord Smith of Finsbury

Lord Smith said the householder would "then lease it back so they could carry on living in it until such time as erosion actually takes the home away".

The homes would be bought at the original market value.

"They would have the capital to enable them to move and find somewhere else to live," he said.

"It is an affordable proposal. The amount of money required is very small indeed compared with the national budget.

"It is a small, modest proposal but really significant to those people with houses at serious risk."

'Absolutely delighted'

The proposal was welcomed by Malcolm Kerby, the co-ordinator of the Coastal Concern Action Group which fights for residents of Happisburgh in Norfolk threatened by coastal erosion.

"I'm absolutely delighted. It (Lord Smith's proposal) is something we have been calling for, for years," he said.

"It is right and proper there should be some form of financial assistance to people left stranded in this situation."

He said at Happisburgh 26 properties had been lost over the years to coastal erosion and six homes were in imminent danger of falling into the sea.