Coastal Communities (Health) Bill

Amanda Martin Excerpts

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Steff Aquarone]

In fact, I would say to the hon. Member that in order to tackle inequality truly we need to work from the outside in. In doing so, we would surely bring into line all the rural inland communities of which he speaks, which I do not doubt share many of the same issues that I am discussing today. If we start with the places the system finds hardest to reach, then we can design services that work there and work inwards. Otherwise, a national average can improve while the communities with the greatest barriers are left exactly where they were.

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

Does the hon. Member agree that the men’s health strategy is working from within, and that having diagnostic, GP and mental health services available at farming auctions is a great move forward by this Government?

[Steff Aquarone]

That is a wonderful example of how designing from the outside in can work. We have seen that with buses and with broadband, and it is plain that we suffer the same with all forms of health services. The former Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), said:

“If Australia can effectively serve communities living in the remote outback, we can meet the needs of people living in rural and coastal England.”

--- Later in debate ---

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) for introducing this Bill and, importantly, for shining a light on issues that deserve far greater attention.

Our coastal communities are special places, but we know that many face challenges that can have a profound impact on people’s health, wellbeing and, indeed, life expectancy. Deprivation, low wages, poor housing, poor air quality, education opportunities and isolation all play a part. I want to concentrate on one area where these inequalities are particularly concerning, which is mental health. Research shows that young people in England’s coastal towns are three times more likely to experience a mental health condition. Behind that statistic are young people, families desperate for support and people whose conditions worsen because help simply is not available when they need it.

These challenges are very real in my constituency of Portsmouth—a coastal city. Too many people in our city are struggling with their mental health. An estimated 15.4% of adults have been diagnosed with depression—above the regional and national average. Behind the figures are people trying to cope, families worried about loved ones and individuals who are not able to get the help they need. Getting this help is also not easy, because Portsmouth has 2,133 patients for every GP, compared with 1,634 nationally. This puts enormous pressure on primary care and makes it hard for people to access support early, when it can make the greatest difference.

The picture for children’s mental health is equally concerning. The Hampshire and the Isle of Wight integrated care board spends just £966 per child with an active referral to mental health services—the 10th lowest spend in England. By comparison, north-west London spends £2,410. Even more troubling is that 40% of referrals are closed before a second contact—the third highest rate in the country. These are not figures; they represent children and young people who need someone to listen, families looking for reassurance and people who deserve consistent support, rather than being left to navigate the system alone.

I therefore welcome the Government’s commitment to opening 159 new NHS mental health facilities across England, bringing support closer to home and intervening early, because it can make a real difference. When community support is unavailable, people too often experience a mental health crisis and end up in A&E. Our emergency staff do extraordinary work, but A&E cannot replace the specialist ongoing care that people need. We must give people access to the right support in the right place at the right time. That is why I am disappointed that Portsmouth has not been selected for one of these new facilities. Given the level of need in my city, I believe that Portsmouth should have been considered, and I welcome the opportunity to work with the Minister to see how we can make that happen.

Behind all these figures are real people and real families. Too many young people, in particular, have lost their life to suicide in Portsmouth. I want to pay tribute to Tegan Hide and everyone involved in the Glade’s law campaign. I thank them for meeting me and sharing their friend’s story. Their determination to honour Glade’s legacy and improve mental health support in our city deserves recognition. Glade Clarke was a 23-year-old woman who sadly died of suicide on 26 August 2026.

If we are serious about tackling health inequalities, we must recognise that coastal communities have distinct needs and ensure that they are not left behind. People in my city of Portsmouth deserve the right to access the same timely, high-quality mental healthcare as everyone else in the country, and I hope that this Government will continue to work with local communities like mine to make that a reality.

--- Later in debate ---

[Adam Thompson (Erewash) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) for bringing this discussion to the Chamber. He might be asking why, as an inland MP, I am speaking on this Bill—I intend to cover that in the coming minutes. Before I begin, though, I will say that it was lovely to hear from the hon. Member for North Devon (Ian Roome). He reminded me of a holiday I had in his constituency many years ago, which I had more or less forgotten, so it was lovely to be reminded of the weekend I spent in Ilfracombe.

I strongly respect the goals of the Bill, but I cannot directly support it. I do not believe that the problems the Bill diagnoses and seeks to recognise are limited to coastal communities, which is why I have chosen to speak today. The issues covered in the Bill and as part of this discussion are ones that affect communities up and down the country, whether they are next to the sea or—like mine—many miles from it. It is not living on the coast that inflicts particular problems on a place; it is people and economy. However, because of the fundamental imbalances that have plagued our country for decades, it is difficult for me to read that a specific strategy is needed to tackle child poverty in coastal communities. My community is nowhere near the sea, but there are children in poverty in Erewash who desperately need help all the same. Half of all the children in Ilkeston live in low-income households—that is nearly double the national figure. Opportunity needs to be created for young people right across the country.

[Amanda Martin]

I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning young people. This Government have changed the rules for parents on universal credit; previously, if their child went to college, they would still get universal credit payments. This Government have extended that to young people taking up apprenticeships. Does my hon. Friend agree that is a really helpful way to encourage growth and provide opportunities in deprived areas?

--- Later in debate ---

[Adam Thompson]

I thank my right hon. Friend for making that point of order.

I was just talking about being the last in a long line of Government MPs. In 2024, the then Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), launched the Conservatives’ 2024 election campaign in Ilkeston, where he took some planted questions from local Conservative councillors dressed in hi-vis jackets—that definitely made them look like ordinary members of the public—and the current Prime Minister kicked off his August listening tour in Ilkeston as well. As per the accounts of one Peter Thorne—one of my fantastic former local members, sadly now passed—even Clement Attlee once stood on a soapbox in Long Eaton market place. Indeed, many Labour party and Conservative party leaders have done so over the intervening years.

Has Erewash’s status as a perennial key marginal done it any great service? Sure. Long Eaton was in the first round of levelling-up funding under the previous Government, but Ilkeston got rejected in the second round. The particular formulation of my constituency and its demographics mean that it has never been described as part of the “red wall”, but parts of it—especially Ilkeston—can really be considered as such.

Ironmaking at Stanton—one of the smaller parts of my constituency—started at the dawn of the industrial revolution, and it carried on for more than 200 years, but sadly it did not survive beyond 20 years after it was privatised. A deep point of pain for my constituents is what happened in Stanton after it was privatised.

I have spoken plenty of times in this place about the struggles that our town centres face. The high street banks are abandoning Ilkeston and Long Eaton, without any regard for the one in five people in my community— often elderly and disabled folks—who still do not use online banking and probably never will. Historic industries have left our towns. That is all as true in the midlands as it is on the coasts of Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Essex, Kent, Dorset and Cornwall—wherever. It is just as true inland as on the coast.

I accept that Erewash is almost as far from the sea as it is possible to be in England—I understand that the furthest point away is about 7 miles away from my house, so that is pretty close—but it is not like we do not also have the flooding issues that face our coastal communities. My constituency is bounded to the east by the River Erewash and to the south by the Trent, which is fed by the Derwent. That means that the entirety of my constituency—particularly Long Eaton—is always at flood risk, as I am reminded every year when I struggle to get house insurance. Even before I was a Member of Parliament, when Storm Babet came in 2023, I spoke to people across the constituency in Ilkeston, Long Eaton and especially Sandiacre, where many residents found their homes under water, facing exactly the same issues as their counterparts in coastal constituencies.

A few months ago, I was joined by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Water and Flooding at the new Witches Oak addition to the Severn Trent site at Church Wilne, which is being specifically developed to deal with particularly dirty water sourced from the River Trent. The River Erewash itself, formerly flanked on both sides by heavy industry, as it flowed through Mansfield, Ashfield, Amber Valley, Ilkeston and Long Eaton, was once said to be the most polluted river in Britain.

I was particularly bemused by attitudes to regional development and the distribution of economic growth during the Makerfield by-election. Right-wing journalists, perhaps for the first time ever, were looking at ward-level economic data to try to say that the incredible growth they have had in Greater Manchester was all just bundled up in shiny towers in the city centre, but that is not what the evidence showed. That suggests that columnists at The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph were perhaps not engaging with that very real and serious debate in good faith. While the pinnacle of growth in Greater Manchester may not yet have reached to the very edges of the metropolitan area, it has spread outwards into Salford, Trafford and Stockport.

What does that tell us about economic growth in the country, in coastal communities and in my community? It is quite simple, really. Some have observed that maps of economic growth across the country just show us where trams go, where local train stations serve or where bus routes go. That should not be a surprise to us in the east midlands or in our coastal regions; Nottingham has a great tram network, and the city has a more productive economy than the country as a whole. I know that they have done incredible work in Stockport on densification, meaning that there are more people in the same space living together, shopping and socialising, and therefore doing a greater amount of economic activity.

I will return to my central thesis. We have grievous economic inequalities around the country, be it in coastal communities or in towns. As we all know, regional distribution is exceptionally poor. I met an education YouTuber—a woman called UnJaded Jade—at Labour party conference this year, and she drew my attention to some of the statistics. They are the things that we know in abstract and by instinct, but it is shocking when they are laid out in front of us. More than half of all graduates from the top universities are still from London and the greater south-east. Young people in the midlands are the least likely to go to university to study a creative subject.

When I see communities in England that are really moving, getting along and growing, they are down here in London and in Manchester, where there is a clear, significant space for creative industries, which need graduates in creative subjects to fuel them. The truth is that that is a world away from our economy in the midlands, where there is very little opportunity for jobs in the creative industries and young people are thoroughly discouraged from pursuing one, despite their growing and innovative part in the British economy overall.

[Amanda Martin]

I thank my hon. Friend for considering our children, our young people and their opportunities. Does he agree that the report by the Children’s Commissioner made for some very stark reading? My own city of Portsmouth was the 12th-worst place in the country to be a child, yet Hampshire was in the top 20 best places. When we talk about red wall seats and areas of deprivation, it is really important that the south-east is not just seen as one block; there are elements of high deprivation in the south-east. We were the worst place in the country for opportunities for 16-year-olds.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Before the hon. Member for Erewash (Adam Thompson) returns to his speech, let me remind him that we are debating the Coastal Communities (Health) Bill, which is about health inequalities.