Key Takeaways:
- The coastal communities in England and Wales are facing significant challenges, including poverty, poor housing, and limited job opportunities.
- The lack of opportunities is affecting the mental health and life choices of young people in these areas.
- There is a need for a coastal communities minister to address the specific challenges faced by these communities.
- The government needs to show respect for coastal places and listen to their concerns to tackle the feeling of disconnect.
- A coastal version of the London Challenge could be a solution to turn around failing schools and provide a clear pathway from education to work.
- Investing in better education and training in coastal communities could help provide young people with a clear pathway to work and solve the crisis of recruitment in the social care sector.
Introduction to Coastal Communities
The coastal communities in England and Wales are facing significant challenges, including poverty, poor housing, and limited job opportunities. The coastline of England features some of the most deprived places in the country, with nine out of 10 of the most deprived neighborhoods being coastal. The lack of opportunities is affecting the mental health and life choices of young people in these areas. To address these challenges, Labour MP Polly Billington is pushing for a coastal communities minister to be appointed, with a focus on generating resources to tackle the pressing issues faced by coastal places.
The Need for a Coastal Communities Minister
Billington believes that coastal areas need to "speak collectively in one voice or risk being overlooked and ignored." She thinks that the lack of opportunities for young people in coastal areas is seriously limiting what can be expected from them. By reforming the coastal parliamentary Labour party, Billington is trying to push Westminster to focus on the party’s "sea wall" and generate resources towards some of the more pressing issues shared by coastal places. Steff Aquarone, Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk, agrees with Billington and is calling for a coastal minister to sit in cabinet. He believes that the government needs to demonstrate the same level of vision and ambition for coastal communities as it did for post-industrial towns in the 1980s.
The London Challenge as a Solution
Billington’s vision is not dissimilar to Aquarone’s, and at the annual Labour party conference, she called for her party to initiate a coastal version of the London Challenge. The London Challenge is often cited as one of the greatest policy successes of the Blair years, turning around failing London schools to the point they outperformed many of those elsewhere in England. Billington believes that a similar approach could be used to turn around failing schools in coastal areas and provide a clear pathway from education to work. Aquarone also believes that investing in better education and training in coastal communities could help provide young people with a clear pathway to work and solve the crisis of recruitment in the social care sector.
The Importance of Listening to Coastal Communities
Ben Cooper, a researcher with the left-wing thinktank the Fabian Society, believes that the government needs to show respect for coastal places and listen to their concerns to tackle the feeling of disconnect. He thinks that a coastal communities minister could be helpful towards that, but only if they were really coordinating across every department in government and "pushing forward with a really interesting, progressive approach to tackling coastal community problems." Cooper also believes that the government needs to do something in those coastal communities, on top of the national policies they are implementing, to specifically tackle the sorts of challenges that his report identified, such as the affordability of housing and opportunities for young people.
The Political Implications
The 2024 election was the first time the Labour party won a majority of coastal town constituencies in England and Wales since 2005, but it is those seats that are now some of the most vulnerable. Modelling of voter intention done for Hope Not Hate and recently published by the Guardian shows almost the entire east coast of England going to Reform at the next election, including Labour seats such as Lowestoft and Scarborough. Aquarone believes that there is a really sharp political reason for the government to be paying attention to coastal communities, particularly as he doesn’t think that Reform has got the solutions to any of these problems. The government needs to take action to address the challenges faced by coastal communities to prevent them from being lost to Reform.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the coastal communities in England and Wales are facing significant challenges, including poverty, poor housing, and limited job opportunities. The lack of opportunities is affecting the mental health and life choices of young people in these areas. There is a need for a coastal communities minister to address the specific challenges faced by these communities. The government needs to show respect for coastal places and listen to their concerns to tackle the feeling of disconnect. A coastal version of the London Challenge could be a solution to turn around failing schools and provide a clear pathway from education to work. Investing in better education and training in coastal communities could help provide young people with a clear pathway to work and solve the crisis of recruitment in the social care sector. The government needs to take action to address the challenges faced by coastal communities to prevent them from being lost to Reform.
