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Coastal Towns

My hon. Friend and I entered the House of Commons at the same time, so we have become accustomed to these little tricks over the years. He is entirely right about that point. I was going on to say that we are about to have a change of Government, without a general election, so I am hoping that we may get some action on the 33 recommendations in the Select Committee report. The Minister for Local Government is not here to respond to the debate, but he and I have had several meetings about the challenges that we face in Southend. I am in a reasonably good position to judge what it is like to represent a coastal town, as compared with a new town. Representing, as I did, a new town with a development corporation and a new towns commission was as if I had won the pools. There was investment there all the time. However, having moved to a seaside town I am, not to use too much of a pun, awash with challenges. I do not want to stir things up too much, but I still regard Southend as the finest seaside resort in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, it has some real challenges, among which is the fact that 20,000 people were left off the census. I had meetings with the census organisation and the Minister, and was given tea and sympathy, but has anything changed? Absolutely not. It will not change until the next census when some of my constituents, and even I, may have passed on to another place. Who knows? The impact of losing funding for 20,000 people has devastated the community. It was wonderful that the Chancellor could give everyone free bus passes. Sadly, in Southend that is of no use because we do not have too many buses. As a result of unitary authority status we had cuts of £7 million one year and £5 million the next.