Coastal and Rural Communities: Employment

Greg Knight Excerpts

Thursday 1st February 2024 Westminster Hall

[Virginia Crosbie (Ynys Môn) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the employment of people living in rural and coastal communities.

I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing me a debate on this important subject, the employment of people living in rural and coastal communities. I am grateful to the Minister for being present to respond on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. Before the debate, there was some discussion about which Department should respond, because there is a strong argument that this is not just—perhaps not even—a DWP matter. Arguably, it is for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, because the problems with employment in rural and coastal areas are entrenched in long-term social and economic patterns. It could be a matter for the Department for Transport, because one of the greatest barriers to employment in rural and coastal areas is physical connectivity—roads, rail and public transport. Or we could have put to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology our questions about the barriers to employment caused by poor digital connectivity in rural and coastal communities. How about the Department for Business and Trade? There are issues to tackle in nurturing supply chains and implementing enterprise zones to enable businesses to thrive.

In places such as my constituency of Ynys Môn, I would add the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to the list and ask when that Department will act on bringing new nuclear to Wylfa, because that would be a game changer for our local employment market. Similarly, I could ask the Wales Office to liaise with colleagues in Cardiff about the impact that decisions made by the Welsh Labour Government are having on employment in my constituency—decisions such as the 20 mph blanket speed limit, which has shredded our public transport timetables; cancelling road building and leaving us with no hope of a much-needed third Menai crossing; and increasing business rates, putting local employers at risk. I am sure that many of my colleagues representing English constituencies would want to include the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care in the list.

In no way do I wish to put my hon. Friend the Minister under any pressure, but in this debate on employment in rural and coastal communities, there is a huge amount to unpick and a clear case for some joined-up Government and intergovernmental action. I will take Ynys Môn as my basis for explaining the unique issues that such communities face—issues that, in the cut and thrust of London, can be very easy to forget. London is just over twice the size of my constituency and has 73 MPs fighting for it; Ynys Môn has just one—me.

Ynys Môn is a coastal, rural and island community as far in the north-west of Wales as one can get, and is joined to the mainland by not one but two bridges. Over the past 20 years, it has lost 2,400 jobs as a direct result of local employers closing. Hundreds of jobs went when Wylfa nuclear power station was decommissioned, 500 when Anglesey Aluminium closed, 100 when the Octel plant shut down, and 700 only last year, when 2 Sisters closed its poultry-processing factory in Llangefni. That is a lot of jobs, a lot of skilled people and a lot of opportunities for our island’s youngsters. We are not alone in facing that problem: between 2009 and 2018, 50% of coastal towns had a decline in employment, compared with 37% of non-coastal towns.

The large-scale employers have not been replaced. The island’s largest employer is now Isle of Anglesey County Council. Our largest employment sector is tourism and hospitality, with more than 33% of local people employed in retail, accommodation and food-related businesses, compared with a 22% average across the UK. It is a sector renowned for offering seasonal, insecure and often low-paid jobs. It was also the first sector to be hit by covid and the last to recover.

[Sir Greg Knight (East Yorkshire) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. Is it not the case, however, that this problem has two sides? There is lack of employment in some areas, but in other areas there are unfilled vacancies. For example, in my coastal town of Bridlington, we cannot get NHS dentists to fill the vacancies. Does she agree with me that we hope the Government will address this problem when they release their dental plan shortly?

[Virginia Crosbie]

I thank my right hon. Friend for the intervention. We on Anglesey also have a dramatic problem with dentists and getting dental appointments, because of the Welsh Labour Government’s approach to dentistry.

Only 9.5% of people on Anglesey work in traditionally higher paid sectors, such as IT, finance, technical, professional and administration, compared with 25.8% across the UK. When I announced this debate, one of my constituents, Kevin McDonnell, contacted me to say that in his household of three working people, the one working closest to home is working in Portsmouth. When people have to commute 330 miles just to get a decent job, we know there is a problem. That may go some way to explaining why the average salary on Anglesey is £27,000, a good £5,000 less than the UK average.

When we relate lower salaries to the additional costs of living in rural and coastal communities, the inequalities become even more stark. Research shows that people in rural communities spend 10% to 20% more than their urban counterparts on everyday items such as fuel. That is hardly surprising, when we consider the context. For someone who lives in Llanrhyddlad, a quick pop to the shops takes 40 minutes driving time, costing £6 in fuel. Some 5,000 households on Anglesey are considered to be in fuel poverty; that is 17% of all households, compared with 12% in England. An estimated 52% of our properties are off the gas grid, compared with a UK average of 15%. We are reliant on alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas, which costs around twice as much as gas.

Interestingly, an internet search on the cost of living in coastal communities does not return that information but instead gives details of how affordable it is to buy property by the sea. Herein lies another problem for our native young people. Ynys Môn has one of the highest rates of holiday home users in England and Wales, with 63.3 users per 1,000 usual residents. Some 2,236 properties on Ynys Môn—an island with a population of just under 70,000—are registered as second homes. That activity pushes house prices up. The average home on Anglesey costs £250,000. With average salaries at £27,000, local homes are clearly becoming more unaffordable for local people.

There is another long-term consideration in relation to holiday homes. There is a correlation between second-home ownership and retirement, and 19.1% of the island’s population is retired, compared with 12.7% across the UK. Therein lies another challenge: in Wales, there are 64 dependent persons for every 100 people of working age; on Anglesey, there are 77. When we also take into account the fact that 6% of our 16 to 64-year-olds are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, compared with 4.5% in inland constituencies, the inequalities start to stack up. A glance at the population data for Ynys Môn shows that we have a pretty average percentage of births and under-18s, but drop significantly below average between the ages of 18 and 50, then rise steeply to above average over the age of 50.

The data is clear. People of working age on Anglesey leave the island to find decent employment and affordable homes. That decimates our communities and leaves behind people earning poor salaries who need to support an above-average elderly and economically inactive population. It is no wonder that Anglesey Council struggles to make its books balance.

I have worked hard along with Anglesey Council and Stena Line to get freeport status for Anglesey and I continue to work hard to establish new nuclear operations at Wylfa. It is a challenge, though. I have personally taken dozens of companies around Anglesey to look at Wylfa and our freeport sites like Prosperity Park in Holyhead. They ask me questions such as, “What is the local workforce like?”, to which the honest answer is that we haemorrhage our local workforce every year because there is no work here for them. “What is the local transport infrastructure like?” Well, it is fine, unless someone wants to cross the Britannia bridge in the summer holidays, when the queues back up for miles, or at rush hour, when people leave the island to go to work, or when the bridge is closed due to high winds. As for, “What is the internet connectivity like?” let us just not go there.

Businesses face real practical challenges, such as how to make their products affordable and competitive when Ynys Môn is so far removed from supply chains and large consumer markets. I stress to them how great the opportunities are in Ynys Môn but also talk to them about how important our unique heritage and culture is to us. I explain how supportive and enthusiastic our local population is, but also how concerned they are that they will be overlooked for new jobs and so pushed further and further away from their communities. I explain that Welsh is the first language of many local people and that these people are fearful that it will be side-lined if new businesses come here.

I explain the challenges around aspiration, skills and education for our young people, as well as our local workforce, and I ask businesses to sign up to my “Local jobs for local people” campaign, which means that they commit to ensuring that, where possible, jobs will be prioritised for local people, they will respect and use the Welsh language, and they will work with schools and training providers, such as Grŵp Llandrillo Menai, WOW Training and Môn CF, to give local people the skills they will need to take available jobs. This is just one approach to ensure that potential new employers understand and work to address the issues we face.

I know that my hon. Friends in other rural and coastal communities will have similar challenges and stories. This problem needs a systemic, whole-Government and inter-Government approach. How do we attract high-quality employers to an area where the workforce has left and the infrastructure frankly is not up to scratch? How do we teach young people the science, technology, engineering and maths skills they will need if those employers come, when all that they see ahead of them currently is working in the summer season cleaning rooms? How do we convince a community that bringing in new employers will not mean that local people get further pushed out by “outsiders”?

In short, how can this Government give Ynys Môn and other rural, coastal and island communities the special support that they desperately need to facilitate new, sustainable and high-quality local employment? Will the Minister will work with me to ensure that employers who want to move to Ynys Môn receive every possible form of support to do so? Diolch yn fawr.