New Social Housing Policy Proposed For East Yorkshire Residents At Risk Of Coastal Erosion

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is introducing a new housing policy to proactively support residents along the East Yorkshire coast who are at risk of losing their homes to the sea.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is set to review a new Local Lettings Policy designed to support households affected by coastal erosion along the Holderness coast.

The policy, presented to the council's Cabinet, applies to properties bought or developed specifically to provide safe, sustainable housing options for residents who are displaced or threatened by coastal change.

The initiative is part of a wider national effort to manage the impacts of a changing environment on coastal communities.

Interim Executive Director of Prosperity and Place, Stephen Hunt, said:

"This council is one of three local authorities identified by government as the coastal adaptation pilot. The other two being in Norfolk and Suffolk, and we've had funding for the last three years from the Environment Agency. Pleased to say, in February of this year, a further three years worth of funding was was awarded by the Environment Agency.

So, a key aim of the pilot is to examine ways to deliver coastal adaptation. Clearly, a huge issue for ourselves.

And one of the key aims of the project is to look at ways of supporting those whose properties are at risk from coastal erosion. And that includes any support that we can provide to help people relocate within the same location.

So this report sets out a proposal for local lettings policy for properties that have been developed and purchased to support those households affected and displaced by coastal erosion."

Under the proposed guidelines, eligible applicants must be accepted onto the council's housing register, be unable to reasonably access suitable accommodation on the open market, and intend to occupy the property as their principal home.

The policy defines "high risk" properties as those expected to be lost to coastal erosion within the next ten years.

East Riding of Yorkshire's coastal change manager, Richard Jackson, said:

"It's estimated that around 127 properties will be lost over the next 100 years.

That doesn't include any allowance for climate change increasing erosion rates. With the Environment Agency's national model, some of the amounts of land anticipated that could be lost with climate change could double in some areas, so that number could increase significantly.

The intention is that there's not a social house for every single one of those people who are displaced. The wider work we're doing is looking at how we can support people financially to invest in their own properties, and also how we can help them rebuild properties themselves. So, the social housing element is the backstop of that where we can't support people to relocate independently."

Council figures suggest 127 homes are at risk in the next hundred years, but Environment Agency data suggests the figure is much higher.

The council's Coastal Change manager Richard Jackson says the two organisations are now working together to produce a more robust figure.

"Every six months, we do an entire fly over of the coast, which sets where the coastline is, and updates the erosion rates for each 500 meters of cliff line. That's then a straight extrapolation backwards of that average erosion rate per year, times by 100 years, that's how we got to the 127.

In January 2025, the Environment Agency updated their national coastal erosion risk maps, within that there were figures for the numbers of properties expected to be lost due to coastal erosion across Yorkshire, and they were significantly higher.

There were several issues that we had with that data. It considered caravans as well in some cases, so we are working with the Environment Agency to update those figures to create a true figure and we hope to have that in the next three months."

The introduction of the Local Lettings Policy aims to alleviate the immense stress placed on residents who are currently living close to the cliff edge but do not yet qualify for emergency assistance.

He added:

"At the moment, the situation is that once people get to that imminent risk line, they get priority on the council housing register because they are effectively homeless, once that property is declared dangerous.

The advantage of this policy is that we have had occasions where people have been 10 cm of getting away from that line. They're on the housing register, but they don't have any priority and it's a great source of anxiety, stress, that has a real impact on people.

People don't want to invest in their homes if they know that it's going to be lost in the short term, so then you get issues, especially with landlords and tenants with substandard properties.

So the intention of this is to allow people to relocate more proactively if they want to."

To qualify for the highest priority, residents must be "normally resident" in permanent accommodation within the affected parish for at least three of the last five years.

Cabinet member for housing, Councillor Michael Lee, said:

"Coastal change is an increasingly significant issue for this authority, with some residents facing the risk of losing their homes.

The policy sets out a clear and practical response ensuring that those most affected can access safe, secure and sustainable housing wherever possible within their local communities.

The approach builds on our existing allocations framework, strengthening it by introducing a targeted and transparent prioritization focused on those at greatest risk, while maintaining fairness across the wider housing system.

Importantly, it also reflects our commitment to supporting vulnerable households, sustaining coastal communities, and planning ahead for long-term environmental pressures."

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