Coastal Towns (Government Policy)

Alan Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 20th July 2010 Westminster Hall

[Mr Alan Campbell (Tynemouth) (Lab)]

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.

[Mr David Amess in the Chair]

In my constituency millions of pounds of public money went into Whitley Bay and elsewhere, and, importantly, that levered in a large amount of private investment. However, when the local administration changed in 2009 it looked exclusively to private investment, with the result that the regeneration stalled. I look forward, in a local and central Government context, not just to words that people will say about seaside towns, but to resources being committed to them.

We know the fate of regional development agencies, but I want to say something about their importance to seaside towns, or at least my constituency. There would not have been a new shopping centre in the centre of Whitley Bay without the important input of the RDA. The renewal of the west quay on the Fish quay in North Shields would not have happened without resources and encouragement from the RDA. Also, the regeneration of the Spanish City site, which needs to be completed, involved a significant amount of public money, which was brought in through the RDA, which understood its importance.

It is in that context that we need to pay attention to the infrastructure. It is true that much of the infrastructure of seaside towns is Victorian and Edwardian, but it is beyond the wit of private investors to come into my constituency and deal with, for example, the sea front, which stretches for two and a half to three miles. It would serve no profitable purpose for the private sector to come and do anything with it. That is why the public sector has a role to play. I just cannot agree with the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart) that the best thing that government can do is get out of the way.

As to tourism, which is important, one of the first things that One NorthEast has done, regrettably but in many ways understandably, is to cut millions of pounds from the budget. That includes some of the sub-regional and regional tourism money. I hope that that money finds its way to local authorities, because it is important that we advertise a delightful constituency to visit and stay in. If anyone is coming to the north-east and wants to go to Hadrian’s wall, or do the castles visit and go to the Metro centre to shop—all things that I recommend—we want them to stay at the coast. We have to be part of the offer that is made. Unfortunately for local authorities, one of the first things that happens is that the tourism budget gets squeezed, because all sorts of other things appear to be more important. In my view, the public sector needs to do what it can do, such as attending to infrastructure—in Whitley Bay we have schools that are among the best in the country, which I must mention to counter what has been said about educational provision in some seaside towns—and the private sector must be encouraged to do what it can. I commend the excellent small businesses along Park View in Whitley Bay, which have got on with things—in partnership with the local authority, and, indeed, in wider partnerships.

I want to ask the Minister about two things. First, the Conservatives said in opposition—and I presume that what they said has been translated into the coalition document—that they believed that community asset transfer was an important part of regeneration, in particular for seaside towns. I think that it was part of their seaside town policy. Is that still Government policy? What will happen, for example, if a local authority is reluctant to go down that route? Will central Government give it a push in one way or another? I commend the fantastic work that Culture Quarter is trying to do in Whitley Bay; but it is very frustrated sometimes by lack of support from the local authority.

Finally, does the Minister agree with the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness about the importance of the environment? The hon. Gentleman took a view about green and wind farm technology along the north bank of the Tyne, which could create thousands of jobs; would the Minister prefer that to the old industries such as, for example, dismantling ships, which have a huge environmental impact, and in the case in question are only a few miles from seaside villages and towns that we hope are in for a very good summer?

[Several hon. Members]

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