Swaths of the eastern UK coastline are eroding faster than expected, forcing the demolition of homes and putting the spotlight on the risks surrounding a £40bn nuclear power plant being built at Sizewell.
The coast around Norfolk and Suffolk is one of the fastest eroding in Europe but the disintegration has intensified in several parts in recent months including an area just 2km from the Sizewell C construction site.
More than 27 metres of cliff at the village of Thorpeness has been lost since December 2024, compared with an erosion rate of 2 metres a year on average, according to East Suffolk Council, which said the “sudden and significant pace” meant safety levels were breached far more quickly than expected. Ten homes in the upmarket area, including two flats that sold within the last few years for more than £600,000, have been knocked down since October.
“I made a cup of tea at 7-7.30 in the morning, and then half an hour later I realised that a quarter of my garden had just gone,” said Hilary Lightfoot, who runs the Vintage Angels shop in nearby Aldeburgh and whose home in Thorpeness has since been demolished.
Helene Burningham, professor of physical geography at University College London, said the area — developed more than a century ago as a holiday spot — had experienced much more “rapid erosion” than anticipated.
More than 2,500 homes in Norfolk and Suffolk are at direct risk of coastal erosion, according to the Environment Agency. Recent winter storms have accelerated the loss of the shoreline, leading to further demolitions along the coast in areas such as Hemsby in Norfolk.
Sizewell C, designed to provide about 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity for at least 60 years, is being built on the coast as it needs water for cooling. It is beside an older sister plant, Sizewell B, among a handful of government-designated nuclear sites around the country.
Regulators, ministers and Sizewell C say the nuclear power station is on a more stable section of the coast than Thorpeness, within a bay and protected by sand bars.
The threat of coastal erosion, sea level rise and high waves has loomed large throughout the planning processes. Developer EDF has had to put “thousands” of hours into assessing and defending the plant from future risk and plans to build a 14 metre high row of boulders to protect it from the sea — bringing forward plans to raise it by an additional two metres — and a 10 metre temporary wall to protect the site during construction.
The issue highlights the tensions for nuclear developers as they try to build supplies of low carbon power which will last for decades but will also be vulnerable to uncertain risks from climate change, which is driving sea level rise and causing more intense storms.
Sir David King, the UK government’s former chief scientific adviser and a supporter of nuclear power, says Britain is, in effect, tilting into the sea on its eastern side because of erosion, which will amplify the effect of rising seas in future.
“That’s the nature of the challenge we are all concerned about on the east coast — and around Sizewell C, that clearly is a problem.”
He says Sizewell C needs to make sure it has a robust protection plan in place, adding: “We need Sizewell C — it’s a massive resource and it’s really important to have an energy mix that includes nuclear power.”
The local community has challenged the government and regulators on whether the area is the best place for the power plant. EDF is also building a new nuclear power plant in Somerset on Britain’s south-west coast, an area less affected by erosion.
“To me, it’s nuts that you would build [Sizewell C] in an [area] that is so vulnerable,” said Chris Wilson from the campaign group Together Against Sizewell C. Dunes in front of the development site had been breached during recent stormy weather, he said.
Paul Dorfman at the Bennett Institute, University of Sussex, and a long-standing critic of nuclear power, said some modelling suggested that Sizewell C “will almost be entirely surrounded by flood water once a year by the end of the 2030s”.
“What is particular about Sizewell C and the Suffolk region is it is one of the most at-risk coasts. It seems a very odd choice for what is a very risky piece of infrastructure,” he said. Sizewell C says its own model does not reflect that scenario.
Minutes from a Sizewell C meeting last September noted an increase in erosion over the past few years at the northern end of the beach, adding that the dunes in front of Sizewell C might benefit from “additional sediment”.
In many parts of Suffolk, shingle — larger well-worn pebbles and rocks — plays an important role in protecting the “soft” sand-and-gravel cliffs and dunes from being washed away. But shingle had been declining in south Suffolk, as storms and natural processes move it along the coast, said Burningham, leaving the land vulnerable.
The UK government’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, which is closely monitoring the Sizewell C site, says it is highly confident expectations for future erosion levels, used in the design of the power plant, will be borne out.
“Environmental conditions and processes at the two sites [Thorpeness and SZC] are different, which results in Sizewell being comparably less susceptible to erosion,” a department spokesperson added.
“It is important to note though, the Sizewell Bay will naturally cycle between periods of erosion and accretion.” It was presently as expected, it said. Sizewell C says it is designing the plant to withstand a 1-in-10,000-year storm and 1-in-100,000-year surge events.
The extent of concerns about the recent rapid erosion further along the coast was reflected at a large public meeting organised by MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, with the district council, the Environment Agency, Sizewell C and others in January. There have been calls for Sizewell to contribute to the cost of local coastal defences.
“Many thousands of hours have gone into assessing future flood risk at Sizewell, including flood risk arising from climate change, and our plans will ensure the power station is protected, even in extreme scenarios,” Sizewell C said.
For now, the community outside Sizewell bay is readying for more demolitions. “Nobody expected [the erosion] to happen at the rate it has,” said Sophie Marple, who bought a seafront property in Thorpeness 20 years ago. Her family built a new home on the site 11 years ago, but plans are now in place to flatten it.
“Just over two months ago, I would have said we had two to three years until we were in danger. But the sustained weather over Christmas, followed by really freak weather events in January absolutely decimated the defences we had left.”
Roo Clark, a 30-year-old whose family has had a beachfront home in the village for decades, said the speed of the erosion had “taken everyone aback”.
Lightfoot said she only had a week to pack her belongings at the home she had lived in for 25 years before it was demolished and did not have property insurance covering coastal erosion.
“The whole village is worried. People who have bought houses recently, they don’t even want to look at the sea. They hate it,” she said.
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