Talking 'bout a revolution: Resilience and coastal policy in England

Sea defence policy in England has proven contentious in the early 21st century, with government willing to defend the coast only where it is considered cost effective and not minded to compensate people for any resulting abandonment of homes.

Additional focus is brought to this position by the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which reflect a growing emphasis on climate change effects and other environmental hazards, and the wellbeing of the current generation and those to come. This requires policy makers to seek to balance economic, social and environmental dimensions, and to tackle inequalities; with a central commitment of the goals to ‘leave no one behind’.

Subsequent to publication of the SDGs, England was promised a revolution in the government’s approach to Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM). This paper seeks to understand the nature of this revolution with particular regard to extant issues around just governance. It finds that policy fails to deal with issues over the local acceptability of proposals for change and the bearing of risk, and instead lies principally in the elevation of the problematic concept of resilience and an accompanying ambivalence towards ideas of sustainability and sustainable development.

International agreement that compensation should be paid to those countries suffering the worst effects of climate change, including sea level rise, suggests that adoption of a similar approach to vulnerable homeowners might be the more appropriate revolution and bring policy more into line with the aspirations of the SDGs.