British victims of climate change 'have case for help'

Yorkshire Post (UK): The Government is facing renewed pressure to compensate victims of flooding or coastal erosion after a Minister conceded it was "morally right" to help. Environment Minister Phil Woolas said no decisions had been taken, but there was a moral obligation to help where damage was due to climate change – offering hope to householders across the region.

Ahead of a crucial meeting in East Yorkshire, he said: "If people have bought a house and the situation has changed then clearly it is morally right that they should be helped. It's difficult to say at this point exactly the nature of that help, because there are different problems in different parts of the country."

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said the introduction of a hardship fund was an "absolute minimum" for those whose properties were damaged or devalued as a result of rising tides or flooding. Mr Stuart, who met Environment Secretary Hilary Benn yesterday, also called for a rethink of the Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy, an Environment Agency plan that would abandon up to 1,000 homes to the elements by ceasing to maintain some flood defences....

Yorkshire's Huddersfield Narrow Canal, looking east to Lock 1E. Shot by Richard Harvey, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales (UK) Licence