Coastal communities: decline, revival and defence

Speech by Chris Huhne MP, Liberal Democrat shadow environment secretary delivered to Symposium on coastal futures, Skegness on Tue 18th Jul 2006

There is a vision of Britain's coastal communities that portrays them as if they were at siege. Coastal villages are subject to the battering of the elements, and worries about coastal erosion and the loss of capital values in homes and businesses. Coastal towns and resorts are assumed to be relics of a by-gone age. Reliant on the good old days of home holidays by the sea, it is self-evident in this conventional wisdom that they have settled into a genteel decline as the British tourist prefers Majorca to Margate. Britain's coastal towns have been just as reliant on one industry, on this view, as the coal and steel towns that went into decline elsewhere.

There are some problem towns that fit the image: towns with distinct social issues of housing benefit supported multiple occupation bedsits, low employment and drug-taking. And there is a whole raft of explanations of why coastal towns should be disadvantaged: coastal towns only have half a hinterland, and so they are handicapped. By definition, they are usually the end of the line so transport links are poor. Employment is low productivity and low wage, and often highly seasonal. The coast booms in the summer, and slumbers in the winter.

But this picture is far too simple as a generalisation, which is one reason why the inquiry by the select committee on the department of communities and local government is welcome. There are plenty of coastal towns that simply do not fit that picture of decline, and which are as successful if not more so than anything inland: Bournemouth, Poole or St Ives for example. True, coastal towns may mirror the relative success of their region: towns on the east coast may be less successful than those on the south coast. But the defining problem is not so much the fact that the settlement is on the coast, as that the settlement has a less successful hinterland.

Indeed, some researchers have argued that the overall picture is if anything relatively encouraging whatever the particular problems of some coastal areas. One recent economic study by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University(1) found for example that the recent growth in employment in the 43 principal seaside towns was bigger than the national average. Unemployment was higher than the surrounding areas, but not much higher than the national average.

Even the tourist trade showed strong growth as day trips, short breaks, weekend breaks and conferences substituted for the decline of the longer-stay family holiday. Indeed, we should not be surprised as tourism is one of the areas of spending that benefits most from rising incomes. We want more tourism as our incomes rise. In the economic jargon, it is income elastic. Although younger people do seem to move to other centres, older workers move to the coastal towns in search of work, not just retirement. The relatively high unemployment - by a small margin - was more a result of the attractiveness of seaside towns for inward migrants outstripping high jobs growth. The study concludes: "The trends in employment and migration suggest that Britain's seaside towns actually have quite a robust economy".

There are, though, odd patterns within this relatively benign overall picture that make coastal areas similar to sparsely populated rural areas. Indeed, in some cases, the two clearly overlap. Coastal areas have an unusual demographic pattern with fewer people in all the age groups below 50, and substantially higher numbers of people in the age groups above 50. This is not just a retirement community, although pensioners are an important source of revenue for coastal communities. People over 50 also seem to move to coastal communities to work: maybe the life is less stressful and more congenial.

That demographic pattern also creates issues for children in communities that can already be sparsely populated, and where the provision of specialisms whether at secondary level or in terms of special needs become more difficult. Here in Lincolnshire, I understand that the coastal action zone contains clear evidence that children have underperformed in terms of NVQs at all levels. Nearly half of those leaving full time education have no qualifications compared with fewer than a third in England and Wales as a whole.

The delivery of other public services can also be difficult because of the surge in the temporary population during the summer months. GP surgeries, accident and emergency and public transport all feel the strain. This is in part because of the importance of tourism with the surge in population that it brings, but it may be exacerbated by the need for casual labour in the farm businesses just inland.

Coastal communities are also like sparsely populated rural areas in another respect: the sea attracts inwards migration from people who do not want to work and invest, but who own a second home by the sea or who come to retire. This inwards migration has over time caused a disconnection between local incomes and local house prices: price to earnings ratios have been ratcheted up by well-paid incomers.

There are no magic wands for policy-makers seeking to improve outcomes in the coastal towns and villages. A simplification of the funding streams for regeneration makes sense; coastal areas like others could benefit from single pot funding. In those areas with particularly low employment rates, surely it makes sense to encourage community work and volunteering. If the benefit claims are disallowed because too much time is spent on community work, no-one is well served. Some flexibility in that area may make a lot of sense.

It is also clear that successful coastal areas will plan their way to a more diversified economic base, attracting young new business through ready-made units, incubation premises and so on. In doing so, it is hard to lay down hard and fast rules. What works for Hastings with all its social problems is unlikely to work for Poole. One town may target more tourism or a diversified hotel trade through conferencing, while another may think its best bet is to build a casino or attract manufacturing. As in any organisation where the management of change is important, leadership matters. Local leaders who understand the strengths and weaknesses of the local economy are vital if a vision of change is to be communicated, and followed through. And they have to be given the discretion and the power to carry their policies through. Part of the agenda for coastal communities has to be local choice and the new localism.

It is, though, important for central government to be supportive not least in those areas where the sheer scale of the problem requires national solutions. I am thinking here of coastal erosion, flood defence and flood risk. There is nothing more devastating - quite literally - for a coastal village than to find that erosion is eating into its stock of buildings, and blighting the rest. On the Norfolk coast, there are examples like Hemsby North Marrams and Happisburgh. On the Holderness coast in Yorkshire, Mapleton is losing two metres a year to erosion. Realistically, there is no available policy of defending every last metre of our land surface. The cost of sea defences is simply far too great when set against both the private and the social costs. Concrete walls for sea defence can cost around £10,000 per metre.

However, we may have swung too far in the other direction from an over-optimistic view of hold-the-line policies towards an excessively narrow view of coastal defences. Not all shore line management plans seem to take account of social costs and benefits rather than private ones. In Lewes, for example, it is clear that "losses and benefits have been calculated only on the basis of residential and commercial property values. Other assets, such as utilities and highways and intangibles such as reaction, impacts on the local economy or environment, have not been valued or included". Clearly, cost -benefit analyses of shore line management plans and of coastal defences need to take account of social costs and benefits as well as merely private ones.

There is also a legitimate question about compensation, particularly when a community has been led to believe that its viability would in the long run be under-written by "hold the line" plans. These were easier to promise than we now know they were to deliver. I was pleased to hear that Environment minister Ian Pearson was open-minded about this compensation issue recently, and it is worth looking at proposals that might address in particular the problems of a community that becomes blighted by coastal erosion. It is not such a large problem that the Government cannot afford to tackle it, and it is the sort of problem that private insurance cannot cope with.

Similarly, the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs is going to have to develop much more convincing flood defence measures as the impact of global warming is felt on our climate. First, we are going to be much more vulnerable to storm surges. We already are as Boscastle can testify. In London, the Thames barrier was raised 55 times in the last five years compared with 12 times in the previous five years. By 2100 it could be closed 325 times a a year on Government estimates. Much of low-lying Britain - including those densely populated parts of south and east London - are vulnerable to the increase of extreme weather events attendant on rising ocean temperatures, and it is in turn the warmth of the ocean and the thermal expansion of water that is, contrary to much of the popular image of melting glaciers, responsible for rising sea levels. Those too are a threat in many parts of Britain.

Overall, it is clear that we need a much more integrated and planned approach to the management of coastal defences, erosion and storm surges. Defra's guidance to local authorities on the assessment of coastal defences is a welcome step forward, as is the review of their standing. But there is no guarantee that assessments on a common basis will lead to successful Defra funding. Indeed, Defra's funding for environmental causes is under strain because of the over-runs and the fiasco over single farm payments. That cannot be sensible, for the failure to provide sensibly for climate change adaptation could lead to far greater costs in the long run. It could also, by the way, unpick the deal that the Association of British Insurers entered into with the Government on insurance coverage of flood risks. The Government's part of the bargain was a commitment to flood defences. That is why I have tabled questions in the house about Defra's spending, and why I will challenge the Secretary of State to guarantee that there will be no cuts in environmental spending.

Britain's coastal communities face many challenges. Challenges of renewal of their economy, investment in their people but also as always the challenge of the elements in the form of coastal erosion, storm surges and flooding. Sadly, the debate about climate change can no longer be solely about heading off the problem. Because CO2 lingers in the atmosphere for a century, we know that global warming will continue for many years even if our international efforts to restrict greenhouse gases are successful. That is why some adaptation has become inevitable, and why coastal communities need support in making that adaptation. Coastal villages and towns are in the front line of Britain's battle against climate change, and are an important gauge of the difficulties to come.

(1) Christina Beatty and Stephen Fothergill, June 2003 "The seaside economy: the final report of the seaside towns research project".