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Coastal Towns

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood and I, he is well aware of the importance of the public sector and the civil service across the Fylde. I agree that there needs to be a joined-up approach to Government policies in such areas, although I would gently remind him that that process is greatly complicated by the outsourcing and breaking up of elements of the civil service, which goes back to before 1997. However, on the basic issue, I entirely agree with him. Let me say a little more about the role of RDAs. I pay tribute to the Northwest Regional Development Agency, which has grasped and grappled very well with seaside and coastal town issues. However, RDAs cannot do everything. As the evidence given to the Select Committee made clear, RDAs were not all clued up about some of the issues or—because of the population distribution in some of their areas—always entirely sympathetic. If we are to have a national strategy or linkage, it should not be implemented on a one-size-fits-all basis or by setting up some new Government quango that is stuffed with civil servants to administer it. We should be looking not only at how to support some of the existing networks that have been mentioned, but at how Departments, and particularly Government officials, can meet regularly. We do not need to create an enormous, expensive bureaucracy to ensure that a few civil servants from some of the main Departments can sit down together two or three times a year to discuss an agenda put to them by BURA, BRADA or other outside groups and to look at some of the issues. At a time when we have the social exclusion unit in the Cabinet working across Departments—social exclusion is, of course, another important aspect of the problems in places such as Blackpool—ensuring that those officials meet each other would be entirely in keeping with the spirit of Government policy. I do not want to end on a negative note, and we are not talking about seaside and coastal towns managing the process of decline, to quote the offensive words of a certain chairman of the casino advisory panel. Seaside and coastal towns have a strong and vibrant future, and some good things have already happened. In a briefing that it has circulated today, the Heritage Lottery Fund rightly draws attention to the more than £104 million that it has put into seaside and coastal resorts in deprived areas. We in Blackpool are particularly grateful for the money that was provided to help with the major regeneration of Stanley park and the restoration of the Grand theatre. I have said relatively little about the details of tourism, but the recent emergence of issues such as sustainable tourism, carbon footprints, lifestyles and short-tem breaks should benefit and give new life and opportunities to seaside and coastal towns. That will be particularly true if those involved in tourism, however it is stimulated, look at ways of building closer and more imaginative links with the rural and heritage hinterland of seaside and coastal towns. There is also the issue of social tourism. One in three families still do not get any form of regular annual break, and the Government could take up that issue imaginatively. There is genuine and exciting entrepreneurship in seaside towns. Not long ago, the Number One guesthouse in Blackpool literally became the No. 1 guesthouse, when it was awarded the title of best bed and breakfast in the country. I have already referred to our master plan, and I should also mention the imaginative refurbishment of the Solaris centre in Blackpool, which turned an old solarium from the 1930s into an environmental centre and a venue for meetings and conferences. There are other examples up and down the country that we could talk about, including St. Ives. Seaside and coastal towns bring out a can-do and entrepreneurial quality in the people who go to them. Blackpool pleasure beach is an extraordinary institution, which has been going for more than 100 years. It was built as a result of the efforts and continued investment of one family. So seaside and coastal towns have a can-do attitude and entrepreneurship, but they need structure, support and an economic motor for regeneration. Most of all, they need a joined-up strategy and encouragement from regional and central Government.