Coastal Change Management Areas and Planning

 

A Coastal Change Management Area, or CCMA, is land identified through the planning system because it is expected to be affected by physical changes to the coast, principally erosion, over the coming decades.

It is not simply another flood zone. Coastal erosion can remove land altogether, while flood risk is concerned with land being inundated. A coastal site can face one, the other or both, so an applicant may need to deal with CCMA policy alongside flood zones and a Flood Risk Assessment.

CCMAs are closely linked to Shoreline Management Plans, which set the long-term approach to managing sections of coast. The result can be very different planning prospects between one part of the coast and another even where the sites look similar today.

 

What is a Coastal Change Management Area?

 

National planning policy expects plans in coastal areas to identify areas likely to be affected by physical changes to the coast and to be clear about the development that will be appropriate there.

The Planning Practice Guidance says a CCMA will normally only need to be defined where rates of shoreline change are expected to be significant over the next 100 years, taking climate change into account.

These are plan-making designations. The local planning authority defines the area using coastal evidence, particularly the relevant Shoreline Management Plan, erosion mapping and advice from the Environment Agency and coastal authorities.

 

What is a Shoreline Management Plan?

 

A Shoreline Management Plan, or SMP, is a long-term strategic plan for managing flood and coastal erosion risk along a stretch of coast.

SMPs divide the shoreline into units and apply one of four broad management approaches over different periods:

• hold the line – maintain or upgrade defences so the shoreline remains broadly in position
• no active intervention – allow natural coastal processes to continue
• managed realignment – move or alter the shoreline position in a planned way
• advance the line – create new defences seaward of the existing line

A CCMA is most likely to be needed where the SMP approach is not hold or advance the line for the whole relevant period, or where there is uncertainty about whether defence funding will actually be secured.

 

A Shoreline Management Plan is not a planning permission

 

An SMP is important evidence and strategy, but it does not grant planning permission and it does not guarantee that a sea defence will be funded or built.

This distinction matters where a landowner argues that future protection makes development safe. National guidance specifically recognises that uncertainty over funding can justify identifying land as potentially affected by coastal change even where an SMP shows a hold-the-line approach.

 

What development may be acceptable in a CCMA?

 

The national policy test is about whether the development will be safe over its planned lifetime, whether it would have an unacceptable impact on coastal change and whether the character of the coast, including its natural environment, would be unacceptably affected.

The Planning Practice Guidance then gives a more practical risk-based approach.

Short-term risk areas, where loss is expected within about 20 years, may be suitable only for a limited range of development directly linked to the coast, such as beach huts, cafes, car parks or temporary caravan and camping uses, generally with time-limited permissions.

Medium and long-term risk areas, roughly 20 to 50 years and up to 100 years, may allow a wider range of time-limited development where a coastal location is important and the economic or social benefits justify it.

Permanent new residential development, including change of use to housing, is identified by the PPG as inappropriate within a CCMA.

 

Why time-limited planning permission matters

 

In ordinary planning, a temporary permission may feel like an exception. In a CCMA it can be central to the logic of the policy.

A building may be acceptable for a period during which the risk is manageable but not for an assumed permanent lifetime. Conditions can therefore limit the period of use, require removal and restoration or link occupation to coastal-change triggers.

That approach is particularly relevant to tourism and leisure uses whose economic benefit depends on a coastal location.

 

What is a coastal change vulnerability assessment?

 

An application in a CCMA may need a coastal change vulnerability assessment. This is separate from, although it may overlap with, a Flood Risk Assessment.

The assessment should be proportionate to the scale and risk of the proposal and will normally examine:

• the expected rate and timing of coastal change
• the development’s planned lifetime
• how the proposal could affect erosion or coastal processes elsewhere
• the safety of users and emergency access
• whether the building or use can adapt, be removed or be relocated
• how the proposal affects the ability of communities and the natural environment to adapt
• the consequences if existing defences fail or are not funded

It is sensible to agree the scope with the local planning authority and, where relevant, the coast protection authority and Environment Agency before an application is submitted.

 

Relocation and roll-back

 

National policy expects plans not only to restrict vulnerable development but also to make provision for uses and infrastructure that need to move away from areas of coastal change.

This can create a difficult planning problem for caravan parks, holiday businesses, community facilities and infrastructure. The current coastal site may be unsustainable in the long term, but relocation inland can itself involve landscape, heritage, ecology or countryside-policy impacts.

A plan-led roll-back strategy is often much easier than leaving relocation until erosion has become immediate.

 

CCMA is not the same as Heritage Coast

 

Heritage Coast is a landscape and coastal-conservation concept. A CCMA is specifically about managing physical coastal change and the vulnerability of development.

The two can overlap, as can National Landscape, SSSI, SAC and flood-risk designations. A proposal on an attractive stretch of eroding coast may therefore have to satisfy several different tests at the same time.

 

Permitted development and Article 4

 

The PPG points out that permitted development can sometimes increase the scale of a property or the number or vulnerability of occupants exposed to coastal change. Where that creates a local problem, an authority can consider an Article 4 Direction to require planning permission for development that would otherwise be permitted.

That is not automatic across every CCMA, so the local Article 4 position needs to be checked separately.

 

What should an applicant check?

 

1. Check the adopted policies map for the CCMA boundary
2. Read the Shoreline Management Plan for the relevant coastal unit and each time period
3. Check defence assumptions and funding rather than assuming ‘hold the line’ guarantees protection
4. Agree the lifetime of the development and whether a temporary permission could be realistic
5. Prepare a coastal change vulnerability assessment where required
6. Check flood risk separately using our flood zones and FRA guides
7. Check overlapping designations including Heritage Coast, landscape and nature sites

 

Key sources

 

• Planning Practice Guidance: flood risk and coastal change
• Environment Agency: Shoreline Management Plans
• National Planning Policy Framework

Conservation, Heritage & Protected Sites

 

Coastal Change Management Areas Page Added: 28th August 2026