Paying for flood defences

Tim W highlighted this bit of good news: " ...it was good to learn that we are beginning to take the defence of our country from the sea seriously, like the Dutch. I caused a huge kerfuffle two or three years ago when I reported that the Government would not reinforce an under-populated part of the Suffolk coast at East Lane, Bawdsey, and that as a result Aldeburgh would eventually become an island. I can report that work on a coastal defence scheme to protect East Lane and its Martello tower starts later this month. A Government rethink? No, a privately funded scheme on the back of a housing development. Welcome to the future of coastal defence."

As I said back in March, flood defences are a supremely local issue and nothing to do with central gummint: " ... if local landowners club together to fund better sea defences to protect their property and livelihoods, then good luck to them.

And as I explained in June, where the ownership of the threatened land is widely held, we can achieve much the same thing with a voluntary, fully-costed and hypothecated local Land Value Tax.