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Coastal Towns (Government Policy)

I congratulate the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Mark Simmonds) on securing an important debate so early in the new Parliament. I have represented a coastal seat in the north-east since 1997 and I am pleased to find what genuine understanding new Members have. Let me warn them, however, that their predecessors also understood the problems of seaside towns, but without action to satisfy the huge demands of local residents and visitors there is a price that may be paid. If I understood the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) properly, he was talking about some specific policies for seaside towns that might be implemented locally, as opposed to the more generic issues such as housing and health that we tend to discuss. I agree with him very much. I also agree with the hon. Member for Southport (Dr Pugh) that the first thing that seaside towns need to decide is what they are for. That is an important first step. I wanted to make some brief remarks in the debate so that I could add a certain balance to some of the comments that have been made. As far as I am aware the previous Government did not sideline seaside towns. The pleas from the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness and others for a continued joined-up approach across Departments is evidence that that Government took seaside towns seriously. In 2010, whatever the problems of seaside and coastal towns—they remain great—they are nothing compared with those of 1997. The previous Government at least began to try to come to terms with the changes to the economy, which happened in a slow process over two or three decades. Those changes were not like a factory closure, in which thousands of people are made unemployed; they took the form of the gradual decline—in some cases the death—of seaside towns.