Why was Hilary Benn's family home saved from the sea while the nearby harbour was abandoned?

Last October 100 concrete tiles were replaced on a sea wall outside the Essex farm belonging to Mr Benn's father Tony, after they were ripped off by the tide.

But at the same time the Environment Agency decided to abandon to the sea the harbour at Southwold and parts of the nearby village of Walberswick, 70 miles up the coast on the Blyth estuary in Suffolk.

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The campaign to save land around the village of Walberswick is supported by radio presenter Simon Mayo, film director Paul Greengrass, and Richard Curtis, who wrote Blackadder and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Stansgate Abbey farm, the Benn family seat on the Blackwater estuary, is currently occupied by veteran left-winger Tony Benn, former Cabinet minister and Labour leadership contender.

Last week ramblers complained there was no public right of way across it - despite the fact that Hilary Benn's department wants to open all of England's coastline to walkers.

Karen Solloway of campaign group Walberswick SOS said: "The only conclusion that anyone can make is that it's preferential treatment. Why should the Stansgate coast be more important or valuable than ours?

"Because of this decision hundreds of thousands of acres of marshland and a beautiful beach will be lost.

"It's not fair. It doesn't seem right. Hilary Benn's son comes and plays cricket here. They should be well aware of what a beautiful place it is.

"The agency is saying: 'We can't afford to pay'. We think existing flood defences could be repaired with clay and a shingle ridge. It would cost a couple of hundred thousand pounds."

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Peter Ainsworth, the Tory environment spokesman, said: "It is clear that unenviable decisions have to be taken with public money, but it seems bizarre that this particular section of coastline on the Blackwater should have been singled out for special treatment from the Agency.

"Worried homeowners all over the east coast who are worried about coastal erosion would love the protection afforded to the Stansgate estate. I shall be asking Mr Benn how he justifies this in the House."

Charles Beardall of the Environment Agency denied claims the Benns had been given preferential treatment - saying the wall around the farm protected 300 properties and cost only a few thousand pounds to fix.

"What we're trying to face up to is that this is one of the fastest-eroding coats in the UK," he said.

"In the face of climate change the sea level will rise faster and erosion will be much greater. We have to adapt.

"The amount spent on replacing the tiles was significantly less that what is spent every year on maintenance of the sea walls around the Blyth estuary."

He said "difficult decisions" had to be made.

"We've got a very small wall based on very poor foundations, so to build anything that will sustain the estuary for the next 50 to 100 years would need £34 million.

"These walls only protect a small handful of properties so we wouldn't be able to justify spending public money maintaining these.

"We sympathise. These are really difficult decisions to make, and we don't take them lightly. We have been through a three-year consultation process."

A spokesman for Hilary Benn's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "There is no new policy. The Agency routinely repairs parts of the sea wall in Suffolk.

"It spends a great deal but it has to prioritise what it does with public money."