Coastal Towns (Government Policy)

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Tuesday 20th July 2010 Westminster Hall

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Mark Simmonds) most warmly on securing this debate on a subject in which, as a seaside Member, he has a long-standing interest. Although he was too modest to acknowledge it, he was the author or instigator of “No longer the end of the line”, which was mentioned earlier.

I declare several interests. Apart from speaking for the Opposition on the subject, I have a long-standing interest in coastal towns; I was carted off to Blackpool at an early age and saw some of the amusement arcades, about which some have waxed eloquently. When I was first elected to the House in 1997, I saw the need on the Labour Benches to establish a Back-Bench group of seaside and coastal MPs. Lastly, I had the pleasure recently, as the honorary president of the British Resorts and Destinations Association, of visiting the constituency of the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness, when the association held its annual conference at Butlins. I was delighted to see that Butlins is as thriving as it was when I first went there 40 years ago.

Coastal towns face a broad range of challenges. I call them challenges because that is what they are; it is not a negative term, nor is it necessarily positive, but it encapsulates some of the points touched on by the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard). We know the challenges. In defence of everything done by the Labour Government, I have to say that when my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Mr Campbell) and I and many others who represent seaside and coastal towns were first elected in 1997, it was after a long period of neglect by our predecessors of the particular problems of seaside and coastal towns. We felt—it is clear from everything that has been said today that new Members feel the same—that a strong and specific light should be shone on the whole question and on the particular problems of seaside and coastal towns.

A light has been shone in recent years on rural areas, on coalfield areas and on inner-city areas. It needs also to be shone on seaside and coastal towns, not least because of what I would describe as the pepper-pot deprivation that they suffer. It is really important that the matter is considered by Ministers across Government. As others have rightly said, it is not a challenge that can be dealt with by only one Department; it has to be dealt with across Departments. That is why the points made by the hon. Member for Southport (Dr Pugh) and others about cross-departmental committees are so important.

A difficult double message needs to be put across in relation to seaside and coastal towns, and Members have touched on the dilemma. We need to discuss their specific problems—for example, deprivation in some of the inner wards of my constituency and, indeed, that of the hon. Member for South Thanet (Laura Sandys), is as strong if not stronger than in some inner-city areas, but that is often masked by grant procedures and formulae because of the larger areas covered by the latter. The Labour Government began to get to grips with the problem, but it was hell for civil servants. No doubt they gritted their teeth when dealing with the minutiae, but they got to grips with the procedures and formulae by considering smaller areas such as sub-ward areas. That was crucial.

The difficult double message is that although seaside and coastal towns have specific problems, they are also worthwhile places. As the Fothergill report shows, they have generated increases in tourism employment over the past few years despite those problems. Those points need to be put across strongly, but it is also a question of seeing seaside and coastal towns in the round. I know from my experience of Blackpool that people too often thought that not enough was being done for the residents, or that not enough was being done for tourism businesses. The truth of the matter is that if seaside and coastal towns are to flourish, things need to be done for both; and what is done for residents and for tourists must be integrated. After all, if residents do not feel good about their town, what sort of welcome will they give the tourists, and how will the tourists feel about it? There are big and important questions when it comes to not having silos and working across Government.

If I have a critique of “No longer the end of the line”, produced by the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness, it is that the document is often too generic—or too Pavlovian—in some of the reactions to Government intervention. When producing his report, the hon. Gentleman made a lengthy coastal tour, which was a good thing. In it, he speaks of Blackpool’s contribution to regeneration with the construction of the Spanish steps, but where did that money come from? I can tell the House that it came from the RDAs, the Sea Change programme and other Government initiatives. We should keep that in mind.

A lot has been said about the so-called neglect of the previous Government, although the hon. Member for Southport was good enough to acknowledge that the Sea Change programme was taken up by them. Indeed, I was pleased to play a part in persuading my right hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Margaret Hodge), then Minister for Culture and Tourism, to put the programme in place. Members are right to pass the question back to the Government, because in our “Strategy for seaside success” document, published in March 2010, we specifically mentioned the importance of continuing Sea Change or something of that nature. It has been an enormously important pump primer.

It is said that the sun often shines in seaside towns, and we did start to fix the roof in seaside towns while the sun was shining. In our March 2010 report, we say that the Northwest Regional Development Agency had invested more than £200 million in coastal towns, and that the Heritage Lottery Fund had given £234 million to 864 projects in English coastal resorts since 1997. Money came also from the working neighbourhood fund and the new deal for communities. In that document, we made a series of proposals, including new licensing rules, focusing on stronger co-operation, extending Sea Change and focusing on the new low-carbon economy.

None of those issues are party political; they have to be faced by civil servants, policy makers and Governments. The present Government need to do that, but they will not do it well if they start with cuts—a point made by the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart) and touched on by the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness—especially if seaside and coastal towns get double hits in the cuts compared with other areas. The Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill), was candid enough to admit that those with the greatest problems were now getting the greatest hit in terms of the funding streams to seaside and coastal towns. That is not something that seaside and coastal towns want to hear, nor should they.

I return to the general comments made today by those on both sides of the Chamber. We heard some good and useful contributions and everyone focused on community involvement. However, that needs pump-priming; it needs things to be done. I have some wonderful community activities in my constituency. Donna’s Dream House is amazing; it was set up for terminally ill children and is known countrywide. The Royal British Legion has its poppy song. However, it is a fallacy to say that such activities do not need pump-priming or some Government support. For example, if we do not have efficient, accurate and specific Government intervention on such things as HMOs—in March, the previous Government proposed good legislation on HMOs, which the present Government should consider—we will not get the results that are needed. If we are to have a big society, voluntary and charitable organisations will need a leg up in seaside and coastal towns, and not a pummelling down from local government or the Treasury through funding cuts.

There are new ideas for the Government to consider. Some were put forward by the previous Government, particularly those to do with Total Place. I would like the Government take up what was said about the funding of seaside and coastal towns but also to consider the specific points made this morning about Sea Change and the other measures needed to ensure that community cohesion in those places continues, and to improve on what was done under the previous Government.