Man sees £600,000 wiped off seaside home amid fears it could be washed away

Locals in an idyllic seaside village have been building their own flood defences as rising tides threaten to wash away their homes.

One property has seen £600,000 wiped off its value already as others feel ‘abandoned’ by authorities as they desperately seek to protect their family homes in Faversham Road, Seasalter, Kent.

Crumbling sea defences have forced residents to sell up before the ocean claims their homes that sit beyond an Environment Agency-maintained clay seawall.

The agency announced it will begin scaling back sea defences as part of a ‘managed realignment’ from 2055.

This means abandoning the current defences and forcing the sea inland to a line that is yet to be precisely defined.

The threat of losing their homes has prompted numerous people living in about 65 properties along the 1.4-mile stretch on the seaward side of the road to try and leave.

Alex West tried to sell his family’s home on the street but said the properties cannot be insured because of their precarious positions precluding people from buying one with a mortgage.

This leaves cash buyers as the only option, he added.

Alex, 33, has been visiting his sea-facing family home since he was a child and it was owned by his grandfather.

It has since been passed to his father but the family were unable to sell it despite dropping the asking price from £700,000 to £100,000.

Eventually, his cousin bought it and the family have built makeshift defences, but they say that their windows are still hit with waves regularly.

‘Things are only getting worse because the defences are falling down. I think the council just doesn’t want anything to do with it,’ he explained.

‘My dad tried to sell it and kept reducing the price but nobody would buy it. You can’t get a mortgage on these, so you need to be a cash buyer.

‘Now next-door are trying to sell so I don’t know how they will get on.’

A female resident of 19 years, who didn’t wish to be named, said they were also concerned but love the house too much to move.

She said: ‘I bought this house with my husband, and we renovated it together before he passed away, so I can never move, it’s too sentimental.

‘Years ago people used to come in and replace the shingle to help, but they don’t anymore.

‘I think that the council need to be doing more. It feels like we have been abandoned.’

Not everyone is as worried about the future, believing the risk is a price you pay for living so close to the sea.

‘There is a higher risk of flooding in this area because you have the sea on one side and salt marshes on the other,’ one resident of two years said.

‘I don’t know anyone here who doesn’t love it.

‘All the sea defences here were put up by individuals. Everyone has been very proactive.’

Councillor Naomi Smith, who represents Seasalter at Canterbury City Council, believes that one big storm could wipe out several houses on the street.

She also thinks that part of the street will be gone with a few years.

She said: ‘The only solution would cost a huge amount of money and it would be a big tall sea wall so it would stop everyone from being able to see the sea.

‘And I just don’t think the Environmental Agency has got the funds for it.

‘Our responsibility at the council is to make people safe and respond in an emergency.’

Ward councillor Charlotte Cornell, who also represents Seasalter, shared the same bleak outlook.

‘It is really sad that people’s homes are under threat,’ she said.

‘Over the last few years, many families have come to us asking whether the government or the Environment Agency can do more to safeguard properties that, in some cases, have been in their families for generations.

‘These are special places, and we understand that living in such a beautiful environment comes with risks as well as pleasures.

‘We have been working closely with the Environment Agency, the Harbour Board in Whitstable, and officers at the local council to make sure residents are aware of disaster protocols and evacuation procedures and we will continue to do so.’

The Environment Agency stressed that the impacted properties sit beyond their clay seawall, which they say is in ‘good condition’.

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