Rapidly eroding Yorkshire coast is 'death by a thousand cuts' for communities

The Holderness coastline is the fastest eroding stretch in Europe, with almost five metres disappearing every year at the worst parts.

Mr Jackson was giving evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into coastal erosion.

He laid out the devastating impact it is having on communities along the east Yorkshire coast, outside of the defended coastal towns of Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea.

“We’re very much focused on individual households, but actually when you’re losing roads, businesses, properties, community assets, heritage assets, landscapes and farmland that people have grown up with, that is death by a thousand cuts for regions,” Mr Jackson said.

He revealed that 66 residential properties have been demolished along the coast over the last 10 years.

Earlier this year, the Coastguard Cottages at Tunstall were knocked down, which had been built in 1902 to replace houses at Waxholme that had previously fallen into the sea.

Recently East Riding Council’s Cabinet approved an £800,000 contribution towards a long-awaited housing development in Skipsea, consisting of two and three-bedroom houses, for social rent and shared ownership.

This is designed to house the increasing number of people losing their homes to the sea.

“Going forward we expect to see large numbers of properties lost,” Mr Jackson explained.

According to the East Riding’s estimates, this could be 127 houses over the next century, however the National Coastal Erosion Risk Map puts that figure much higher.

There are also thousands of caravan sites at risk, as well as major roads, he said.

“Even those defended towns are suffering from coastal erosion, because they are reliant on tourism and if the caravan sites and roads are going then that is impacted,” Mr Jackson explained.

Charlie Dewhirst, the MP for Bridlington and the Wolds and an Efra Committee member, described some future erosion estimates as “quite extreme”.

He said: “We accept we can’t defend every inch of the coastline.

“In the East Riding that’s particularly obvious where we have defences around Bridlington, around Hornsea and around Withernsea to the detriment, perhaps, of some of the other areas.”

Mr Jackson explained: “We can only defend certain areas, because of the impact on other areas, the cost and because of the maintenance of internationally designated habitats.”

He explained that the council is often accused of choosing birds over people as “the sediment that comes from our coast is needed to maintain habitat in the Humber and elsewhere”.

Mr Jackson also called for greater certainty around funding, as the money from the Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (Ctap) will run out in March 2027.

“Until we’ve got certainty of future funding, it’s difficult,” he said.

Earlier in the year, former Environment Secretary Steve Reed announced that £2.6bn is to be pumped into more than 1,000 flood defences across the country, including many projects in Yorkshire and the Humber.

This included £7m going towards the latest phase of the Stallingborough Sea Defences along the Humber estuary.

Mr Reed claimed this was a record level of investment which would protect around 66,000 homes and businesses from damage.