The threat of coastal cities like Hull being wiped off the map is a real one, according to an expert who fears coastal erosion and rising sea levels are not being taken seriously enough.

Dr Hugh Ellis, head of policy at the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) told the Hay Festival that sea levels could be at least a metre higher by the year 2100.

“We need to be thinking, does Hull have a future?” said Dr Ellis.

He explained that “there are one or two people in the Department for Communities and Local Government who are looking at this, but most are planning for a 60cm rise but the science tells us that it is going to be at least double this” said Dr Ellis.

Britain needed to make sure its local authorities and government were working together on a plan, the Hull Daily Mail reported.

“We need to think about moving populations and we need to make new communities,” he told the audience.

Dr Ellis’ warnings come after a report earlier in the year that revealed coastal areas of east Yorkshire were eroding three times as fast as the year before.

In some areas along the coast, the county had lost seven metres compared to a national average of 1.7 metres, the Guardian reported. The list of properties being abandoned as they are no longer safe is also increasing.

There are 200 homes that are predicted to slip into the sea between Flamborough Head and Spurn Point over the next 100 years.

The stretch of coastline as moved 12 miles in the last 10,000 years.