The world’s only PPP / PFI sea defence contract this year celebrates its 10th anniversary of protecting East Sussex from coastal flooding. Margo Cole talks to some of the key players in the arrangement to find out what has made it such a success.

At first glance the beach at Pevensey Bay looks typical of many on the English Channel coast: a constantly shifting landscape of shingle interspersed with timber groynes in varying states of disrepair. But closer inspection reveals that this 9km stretch of East Sussex beach is far from typical, not least because it is the location of the world’s only PFI/PPP sea defence contract.

The contract runs for a 25-year period, and this year the two sides – client the Environment Agency and the four companies that make up the PPP consortium – are celebrating their 10th anniversary in an atmosphere of mutual accord. Environment Agency team leader Ian Nunn describes the arrangement as “pretty much perfect”, adding: “People just didn’t believe you could run this sort of project on effectively trust, but in 10 years the dispute and compensation clauses have never been used.”

Much needed investment

The agreement was signed in 2000 as a way of bringing much needed investment to Pevensey Bay, where the only protection against flooding was a naturally formed shingle embankment. A permanent breach would result in 50km2 of land being flooded at high tide – an area that includes over 17,000 properties as well as roads and railway lines.

The Environment Agency estimated in 1997 that the cost of a permanent breach at Pevensey would be £125M. Also affected would be the Pevensey Levels, an important wetland environment designated as both an SSSI and a Ramsar site. The bay’s defences have suffered scant maintenance, as well as being affected by natural erosion. By the late 1990s many of the beach’s 150 groynes had reached the end of their useful life and a 1 in 20 year storm may have seen the embankment fail.