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Coastal Towns

As a non-member of the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government, I start by congratulating the Chairman, the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey), and her colleagues of all political persuasions on the excellent, comprehensive and cohesive report that we are debating this afternoon. As I was present when she spoke, I can confirm to those who were not that she did so with great passion and eloquence. The hon. Lady was absolutely right to highlight the three or four key issues that the report pulls out. They include outward and inward migration. Outward migration involves people who are younger, brighter and ambitious—they want to go away to university, and they rarely come back. We have exactly the same problems in Skegness. Inward migration is often by elderly, vulnerable or poor people. The hon. Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden) made the same point, and he was right to do so. There are also poor transport links, but I shall not dwell on them, because although it is an issue in Skegness, it is not one of the top three or four that I want to discuss. My hon. Friend the Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) is right to be proud of Southend. I am sure he knows that in a recent survey, Southend and Skegness came joint first as the best places to retire in the United Kingdom, and we, as the representative Members, can be proud of that. My hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) was absolutely right to highlight the importance of co-ordination. In Lincolnshire, East Lindsey district council has set up a coastal action zone that pulls together all the disparate and requisite bodies to put forward a cohesive action plan to regenerate the coast. He has a great deal of expertise in regenerating socio-economically deprived boroughs from his excellent work over many years in Wandsworth, which is now a beacon in the local authority sector.