The city should brace itself for rising sea levels and violent storms, an environmental conference has warned.

Future developments on the seafront will also come under attack from corrosive winds as climate change brings more extreme weather to Brighton and Hove’s coastline.

Speaking yesterday at the Brighton and Hove Sustainability Conference, John Orrell, managing director of HOP Consulting said environmental factors should be a major consideration when planning for the next fifty years.

Mr Orrell said: “Brighton Marina is a good case history as a difficult piece of construction in the seventies and now there will have to be consideration given as to how to deal with rising sea levels and erosion to maintain coastal sites for the next 50 to hundred years.

“Buildings will be the subject of increased wave attack and storms.

“Sea level rises of 6mm per year could be quite significant and so it will be important that buildings are set so that things that shouldn’t be flooded are set at levels where they won’t get flooded.

“All along the south coast there are buildings that have large amounts of exposed metal and this will lead in the future to even greater corrosion.”