Coastal Communities

Patrick Hurley Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

In many ways, my constituency of Southport is a typical coastal community and, like many coastal towns, it has seen better days. It is coping with challenges that do not necessarily impact inland areas to the same extent. Part of that negative change is due to the nature of the town’s economy, but a big part of it is due to its geography: it is a seaside town.

What made many of our seaside towns successful originally—the sense that they were a trip away from the big city and that people could travel for miles through the countryside to get to them—now militate against us. While it once might have been appealing for families from Manchester to take a packed lunch to the seaside and enjoy the scenic train route through Lancashire, it is no good for our commuters to still be stuck on that scenic route, trundling across the north-west to get to work and back every day. What was once our strength has now become our weakness.

Austerity has hit us hard too. The former Government removed in excess of £200 million a year from the local area. The multiplier effect of that has had an impact on private businesses in the town because when so many customers see that their wages are not keeping up with prices, then small businesses fail. We have seen a lot of that in Southport in the past decade.

Austerity manifests itself in different ways in different areas, and in my town austerity has manifested itself most prominently in the closure of the town’s seaside pier. A botched repair job 25 years ago means that there are now structural problems estimated to cost over £10 million to fix. The pier is in local authority ownership, and thanks to the previous Government, the local authority has not got the money to bring about the necessary repairs. I have been campaigning on innovative ways to ensure that piers across the country are safeguarded for the next generation.

This Labour Government have more coastal MPs than at any point in our country’s history, as is evidenced by the overwhelmingly empty Conservative Benches. The common issues faced by coastal towns are felt keenly by my colleagues on the Labour Benches. With that in mind, I am pleased that the Government are willing to commit to support our coastal communities and I too put on record my wish to see the creation of a specific Minister for coastal communities. The issues our areas share are so specific to the coast, common to each other and important to our residents that Government will gain greatly from a dedicated Minister ensuring that the views of our towns and areas are heard in this place.

I am sure that if government steps up and meets some of the challenges that our towns face, the decade of national renewal that we know the country needs could be implemented.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. With an immediate two-minute time limit, I call Siân Berry.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Webb (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

For too long, coastal communities such as Blackpool have been left behind. Despite our stunning coastline, proud heritage and incredibly resilient people, Westminster has neglected us for far too long. Now, with a new Labour Government in place, we have the opportunity to turn the tide to ensure that Blackpool and other coastal communities finally get the support they deserve.

Nearly one in two children in Blackpool live in poverty. I recently submitted a report to the child poverty taskforce based on the experiences of parents and those working with children in Blackpool. Almost 90% of those surveyed said that financial strain was damaging children’s enjoyment of childhood. That is unacceptable, and we must change it.

Blackpool’s economy has long relied on tourism and associated job roles that historically have been seasonal, insecure and low-paid. Local efforts have done much to create a year-round economy, and the Government must support them. That means targeted investment in the sectors that can provide long-term careers, helping businesses to grow and expanding skills training to prepare our workforce for the future. With the right support, we can unlock Blackpool’s full potential.

[Patrick Hurley]

Does my hon. Friend agree that with the new Government, north-west towns have the best opportunity for a generation to turn the tide on years of Tory decline and ensure that their best days lie ahead?

[Chris Webb]

I completely agree. I have many happy memories of my hon. Friend’s constituency of Southport. My family would go from Blackpool to the Pontins in Southport, but my dad would always go the long way round on the motorway so it felt like we were going further away than we were.

As I was saying, this does not mean turning our backs on tourism and hospitality: it means investing in them. However, the rise in employer national insurance contributions presents a significant challenge to them, and jobs are at risk. If we are serious about growing our economy and supporting working people, we must give this sector the support it desperately needs. A 12.5% VAT reduction for hospitality and tourism would boost turnover, creating nearly 300,000 jobs over the next decade and delivering billions in tax revenue. That is the kind of bold, ambitious action that places such as Blackpool need to thrive.

For too long, places such as Blackpool have been left behind, but with the right plan and with the determination to see it through, we can change that. My constituents demand a voice, so I am also calling for the appointment of a dedicated Minister for coastal communities. The last Labour Government rebuilt our cities; this new Labour Government have the opportunity to rebuild our forgotten coastal towns. We must deliver a cross-Government strategy dedicated to improving the health, wellbeing and prosperity of coastal communities. The chief medical officer has rightly said that

“strong, targeted, long-term action”

can lift our coastal towns and create a fairer, healthier and more prosperous future for all. My constituents deserve nothing less.

--- Later in debate ---

[Patrick Hurley]

Does my hon. Friend agree that a strong enabling state, bringing forward those five missions and investing in a progressive industrial strategy, can help our coastal towns thrive in the next decade?

[Ms Billington]

Indeed, we need a place-based approach with that active state. If we want economic growth that reaches all parts of the country, invest in coastal communities. If we want public services that really improve the experience of people who are most alienated because of state failures, invest in coastal communities. If we want to create an environment that works for nature and people, invest in coastal communities. I am speaking not just about financial investment, but about investment of Government time, energy and focus.

When colleagues and I were trying to work out which Department would be answering this debate, we literally did not know. While I am obviously delighted to see the Minister in his place, the issues raised in this House today span all Departments, whether that is Health, Transport, Environment, Education, the Home Office, the Treasury or many others. I simply note that if there is not one Minister who fits the portfolio, there should be one—a Minister for coastal communities who can focus on regenerating our towns and growing our coastal economies.

I will end with a point about the previous Labour Government. In the 1990s, cities were not the places they are today. That Labour Government had a relentless focus on improving them, and the regeneration we have seen is testament to what can be delivered. Coastal towns are in the same position now, and the Labour Government have not only—

Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill

Patrick Hurley Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Tracy Gilbert) for bringing this valuable debate and Bill before the House today.

As has been made clear by many speakers, for as long as we have known it, there has been a weird hotchpotch of different regulations concerning different elections in the UK. We have different voting systems for different elections; we have parliamentary boundaries that take little account of the boundaries for local elections; and we have age differences for different elections in different parts of the country, with votes at 16 in some parts of the country for some elections. We have voter ID regulations. We have the single transferable vote, top-up systems and first past the post. That whole hotchpotch of different regulations needs to be simplified and standardised.

[Graeme Downie]

The stramash that my hon. Friend refers to around electoral systems is added to in Scotland, where initially the Scottish Parliament had a four-year term. That was extended—temporarily at first—to a five-year term to take account of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 that was enacted in this place. That has not yet been mended; it now seems to have become a five-year term, which causes additional confusion that I am not sure has been properly and adequately explained to the Scottish people. Does my hon. Friend agree that that adds a further complication to the problems he is describing?

[Patrick Hurley]

I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend—the amount of complications and complexities in the voting system in this country needs addressing. This Bill will address just one of those complexities, but I fully agree with what he has said.

My hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) mentioned that we could perhaps guess his age from the elections he had taken part in. In a similar vein, perhaps Members can guess my age when I say that the first national election I voted in was the landslide Labour victory of 1997. At the time, I was living in the marginal constituency of Knowsley South—it was one of the safest seats in the country. I am sure it was not the vote of my 20-year-old self that tipped the balance in that election, but none the less I was very proud on that May morning to go down to the community centre around the corner from my house, with my voting card in hand, and cast my vote for the first time in a national election for my MP.

I am still very proud that at every election, I cast my vote in person, but just because I am a hopeless old romantic who wants to go down to the polling station, it does not mean that we must ensure that everybody does that. On the contrary, we need to make voting as easy and engaging as possible, so that the majority of people can engage with the process. For those people who cannot vote on the day, we need to ensure that proxy and postal voting, and absent voting more generally, is as easy as it can be.

I will talk briefly about an issue in my constituency and across my wider combined authority area. Over the last couple of years, since voter ID has become mandatory, there has been a localised concern. The law states that an older person’s bus pass is an acceptable form of ID, but the common bus pass in my part of the world is the Merseytravel over-60s bus pass, which the law does not allow to be used as voter ID. My council, and neighbouring councils across the local authority and combined authority area, had to write to every single Merseytravel over-60s bus pass holder in the borough to tell them that their bus pass was not valid to vote with, contrary to what they had been led to expect and believe by the national press in its reporting on the law change.

[Graeme Downie]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the move to ensure that veterans’ passes could be used as voter ID, which was one of the first things that this Labour Government did, was a welcome change?

[Patrick Hurley]

I again agree wholeheartedly. The omission of veterans’ passes from the previous legislation, which meant that they could not be used, was shameful.

We have all talked about the complexities, but the cherry on top of the 57 varieties of voting system that we have all got used to over the years was the old European Parliament elections being held under the d’Hondt system. I am mindful of time, so I will not go into detail on that—I am sure that even Mr d’Hondt could not come up with a better method of filibustering than doing so.

Much to my dismay, this Bill is not intended to correct every single peculiarity of the voting system, but it is intended to correct one. The Elections Act 2022 made it easier to apply online for absent voter arrangements, but it included Scotland and Wales only when it came to UK parliamentary elections. For some reason, Wales was included when it came to police and crime commissioner elections, but Scotland was not. Unwittingly, the weird hotchpotch of systems was made worse, rather than better.

People in Scotland and Wales who thought that they had registered for a postal or proxy vote found out when it was too late that they had registered for one set of elections but not another. Unwittingly, they were being disenfranchised, due to the nonsensical bureaucratic changes that had been brought in. Even council officers, as has been made clear, did not want this change; it heaped further administrative and cost burdens on electoral officers and local authorities. Nobody wanted it to happen, yet almost by accident, the complexity was increased.

There needs to be a raft of changes. The remits of the various boundary commissions need revisiting, and the voting system needs updating to ensure stability and good governance. In July last year, we achieved stability and good governance almost by accident, despite the voting system. Voting needs to be made more accessible, and engagement with the democratic process needs to be made easier.

In conclusion, there is a huge patchwork quilt of rules that make sense to almost nobody. The Bill seeks to rectify one small aspect of the increasingly daft situation. I hope it is allowed to make progress.

Oral Answers to Questions

Patrick Hurley Excerpts

Monday 2nd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Naushabah Khan (Gillingham and Rainham) (Lab)]

2. What steps she plans to take to help regenerate high streets.

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

5. What steps she plans to take to help regenerate high streets.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

12. What steps she plans to take to help regenerate high streets.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alex Norris]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. I totally agree on the important role that healthy and vibrant high streets play for communities. Initiatives such as Love Gillingham are vital in bringing local people together to create high streets that work for them. Ensuring that local authorities and the communities they serve have the tools they need to support the high street is a priority. With regards to ownership, HM Land Registry is searchable for a variety of information, but I welcome the chance to meet my hon. Friend to discuss that, and perhaps Love Gillingham as well.

[Patrick Hurley]

The regeneration and refurbishment of town centres such as mine is being structurally disincentivised by the tax regime, which gives preferential treatment to new builds on out-of-town retail parks, instead of renovating our much-loved historic high streets. Southport’s town centre is beautiful, but has definitely seen better days. Just this weekend, our much-loved independent bookshop, Broadhurst, was closed down after over 100 years of trading. Given the dire economic circumstances we inherited from the former Government, what can the Minister do to incentivise the private sector to invest in our town centres and high streets, bringing life back to them?

[Alex Norris]

I am grateful for that question. With your forbearance, Mr Speaker, may I say, before I answer, that I and my ministerial colleagues know my hon. Friend’s community has been through a dreadful last few weeks and that our support is with them? I know he will come forward with other ways in which we can help. We went through something similar in Nottingham and I know how dreadful it is for the community. We are here to help.

On the tax regime, we are committed to a fairer business rate system. In our manifesto, we pledged to level the playing field between the high street and online giants, as well as to incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship. Listening to business and communities, we will continue to consider how we can go further to support high streets, while new powers such as rental auctions and the right to buy community assets empower those communities to address decline.