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Coastal Towns

I wish to declare my interests, as one should, at the beginning of my contribution. First, I am the honorary president of the British Resorts and Destinations Association. Last night, I spoke at its annual conference in Eastbourne, where it was sunny. Secondly, I am the convenor of a group of Labour Back-Bench Members of Parliament who represent seaside and coastal towns. The group was formed shortly after the 1997 election, as you are aware, Mrs. Anderson, because of our belief that seaside and coastal towns had things in common. Thirdly—and, of course, not least—I am the MP for Blackpool, South. My hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) is unable to be here today because she is on a Select Committee visit. She and I work closely together on all the issues that affect Blackpool, and I am sure that, if she were here, she would echo many of the things that I hope to say this afternoon. I praise the Select Committee and its Chairman, my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey), for producing an excellent and outstanding report. To those of us who represent seaside and coastal towns, many of the issues that the report covers will not come as bolts from the blue, but the singular value of the report is in bringing all the specific characteristics and challenges together in a succinct way and with the full authority of an informed and thoughtful Select Committee. The report is an important contribution to the debate. I was pleased, but not at all surprised, that the Select Committee included in the report many if not all the problems that Blackpool and many other coastal towns face. Some of them have already been mentioned: the skewed demography, the outward movement of young people, and the need for stronger care structures for vulnerable and elderly residents, which is a big issue that needs to be addressed. Certain resorts have a reputation for attracting retired people, but all coastal and seaside resorts attract a significant number of people who are retired or are about to retire. When they move to seaside and coastal resorts, they often think that there will be many years of happiness and security ahead of them, and for many, pray God, there will be. But if illness or accident come along, or if one partner loses the other, those people are often deprived of the natural supports of family and familiar social networks that they would have had had they stayed in the places that they came from originally. Therefore, apart from the number of care homes and the other issues to which my hon. Friend alluded, seaside and coastal towns attract significantly higher burdens in that respect, and the funding formula and the Government in general would do well to pay attention to them. Transience has been mentioned. It is a great challenge for local authorities. I believe that sometimes the sophistication of the problem is not entirely understood, particularly in relation to education. For example, I can think of two or three schools in the centre of my constituency for which turnover on the roll can be anything between 40 and 50 per cent. in a year. It is not just a question of people coming into the town—families coming to Blackpool or escaping economic pressures elsewhere and so on—but of families moving within Blackpool. I know from my advice surgeries and from cases that have been raised with me that some families in Blackpool move three or four times a year to get access to relatively low-cost accommodation in the rented sector, which, sadly, is sometimes of relatively low quality as well. That creates additional burdens. The impact of transience was well documented in a series of reports that Janet Dobson and her colleagues at University college London did some years ago under the sponsorship of the Department for Education and Skills. The report deals very well with the subject. Housing is a major problem. If we pick up our papers today, we see alarmist reports about what will happen to the cost of housing in years to come and how difficult it will be for first-time buyers to get on the ladder. I pay particular tribute to the Select Committee for having the sophistication to recognise the dual problem in seaside and coastal towns. House prices have been driven up very high in seaside towns that are attractive and where regeneration has taken place. However, areas with former bed and breakfasts that have officially or unofficially become houses in multiple occupation, for the reasons given by my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, South-West, have remained areas with low-cost rented accommodation that is often of poor quality. Those twin pressures do not do seaside and coastal towns any favours. I am glad that Blackpool council, with the support of the Government, has begun to license HMOs. The Government acknowledged the problem in their response to the report, but a great deal more needs to be done about it. The situation will only get worse, not better. As for tourism, again, I do not want to repeat many of the things that I and other colleagues have said continually since 1997 to a succession of Ministers, but the historical reliance on tourism for jobs and inward investment, certainly in a town such as Blackpool, cannot be expected to produce change or renewal overnight. An analogy that I have used before can be used to describe the problem faced by all of us who represent seaside and coastal towns. After Suez, Dean Acheson said that Britain had lost an empire but not yet found a role. That is true, although perhaps not in quite such a bleak way, of many seaside and coastal towns. We have lost the empire of the standard one or two-week family holiday. It is not true to say that seaside towns have not yet found a role; they are all in their various and vibrant—some more vibrant than others—ways trying to find alternative roles, but it is not an easy path. I will briefly illustrate that with some facts about Blackpool. One of the great advantages of being the MP for Blackpool is that everyone has an opinion about it—it is not like representing some melange dreamt up by the boundary commission. Blackpool experienced one of the biggest, if not the biggest explosion of investment in working-class holidays and infrastructure in the late 19th and early 20th century. Our experience of the legacy and the downside of that is therefore significant, which is one of the reasons why Blackpool is currently ranked as the 24th most deprived authority area out of 354 nationwide, why between 1987 and 2003 visitor numbers dropped from 13.2 million to 10.6 million, and why about 11 per cent. of Blackpool’s population is classed as transient. I am grateful for the comments on the evidence given to the Committee by Blackpool council as it means that we have not simply cried into our beer. I see my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Barbara Follett) in her place; and she will be pleased to know that I will not go into a long account of Blackpool’s attempt to secure a super-casino—although I am tempted. That process and campaign demonstrated that it was not just about getting a super-casino, but about everything that Blackpool has done with its master plan, its sea defences and the investment that has gone in. Much of that was directly a result of Government investment. What can regeneration do? What should we expect the Government, local authorities or regional development agencies to do in terms of regeneration in response to the Committee’s excellent report? I hope that most hon. Members agree that the success of a community in a seaside or coastal town depends on addressing the needs of visitors and residents equally. We should take account of the needs of visitors, who are in many cases still the economic bread and butter of a town, as well as the needs of residents. In Blackpool there has sometimes been a history of friction and tension between those involved in the tourist industry in the town, who thought that enough could never be done for tourism, and those residents who were not involved, who thought that far too much was done. I am glad that that tension has largely disappeared in Blackpool during the past 10 to 15 years. Regarding the need to have a joint enterprise, there is a great sense of commonality between those who are involved in the tourism sector and those who are not. It must also be recognised that investment in infrastructure is important, which the Committee has made clear. Another important factor is the economic motor in a seaside or coastal town. Money may be spent on infrastructure, but if there is not an economic force in the town—a vibrant activity, entrepreneurship or source of job creation—the infrastructure that is designed to attract tourists will not in itself lead to regeneration. Tourism infrastructure will also not solve the problem of transport, which is a key issue in seaside and coastal towns. The report has alluded to that, but on the whole Governments of all parties have not focused on the transport needs of seaside and coastal towns. We are grateful to the Government for the first tranche of investment in our tramway, but we are still waiting for a definitive solution on transport. Hastings is a classic example of a south-coast town that does not benefit from good links to London, either by rail or by road. Such peripherality issues cannot be left solely to regional development agencies to deal with; they have own priorities and pressures. An element of central Government intervention or response is needed.