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Therese Coffey, whose constituency is the aptly named Suffolk Coastal, is part of a grouping of MPs who have relaunched the Coastal Marine All Party Parliamentary Group.

Brandon Lewis, Great Yarmouth's Conservative MP, is also a member but not the Lib Dems' North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb as he is part of the government.

Shoreline Management Plans, which are drawn up at district council level with input from counties and other bodies, are being finalised at the moment.

"For the first time in the UK, we are moving towards a 'no active intervention' policy," Dr Coffey said.

"Communities have woken up to the fact their coastline might be allowed to crumble or their sea wall will be allowed to be breached."

She said this is in contrast to similar communities in the Netherlands where local authorities are reclaiming land, not allowing it to erode.

She understands that ministers cannot commit to defending every bit of the coast, but a balance needs to be struck.

"My line is that 100-year decisions are being taken on the basis of three-year budgets," she said.

English Nature is very keen to allow this "no active intervention" and have a situation of managed retreat. The Conservative MP believes its wish is to reveal the geological character of the area, exposing fossils and other natural history features.

"But I think people are more important than fossils," Dr Coffey said.

She thinks it is a complex issue, with lots of areas of scientific and natural importance along the coast. She believes Felixstowe and Southwold would be defended but other smaller places would not: "There are parts around Aldborough where there are no houses, but if they allow them to flood, that would affect the whole estuary community behind.

"Thorpeness is a particularly difficult area - people there have pledged to pay out of their own pockets, up to £13,000 each, for the building of their own sea defences. We don't want people to take matters completely into their own hands but that there must be some element of "Big Society" involved, to allow people to manage things locally.

"I realise there are not hundreds of millions of pounds to protect places where few people are living but in ways like this, the Big Society can become a reality."

She is raising the government's policy on shoreline management plans in a Westminster Hall debate.

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