As chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Coastal Communities, I have been steering inquiry sessions and discussions about our coastal communities, including the challenges and opportunities we have here, in Hastings and Rye.
As an APPG, we have no funding to commission studies or reports, so a coalition of coastal agencies, including the Coastal Communities Alliance (which provides the secretariat for the APPG), the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group, and Coastal Partners, commissioned a new report into the levelling-up of coastal communities. I was keen that, contrary to previous reports commissioned by various governments over the years, such a study would look not only at the current challenges affecting coastal communities, especially after the Covid pandemic, but also at the opportunities available if the right support and focus is given by government.
The report highlights the opportunity to strengthen the levelling up framework on the basis that the Government needs more granular data for coastal communities to better identify coastal deprivation and areas requiring additional support. In summary, coastal communities are essentially lumped in with a wider area and their specific metrics are overlooked. The report also confirms the argument that, as challenges facing coastal communities have developed over years – or decades in many cases - these long-term challenges require long-term strategies and crucially, long-term funding. Levelling-up is going in the right direction, but because existing funding pots are stand alone or competitive, it may not meet the long-term need. One of the ways to solve this would be to adjust the local government funding formula to better reflect the local need, deprivation and the higher costs that coastal communities tend to endure and to provide local councils with additional funds to tackle local challenges and facilitate developing long-term strategies.
I have long argued that with the right support and focus, our coastal communities like beautiful Hastings and Rye can unleash their potential and rather than be a problem to solve, we can become a resource to the UK and can contribute even more. We can focus on the green economy, on the marine environment and infrastructure, our fishing industries where changing preferences for sustainable fishing provides real opportunities – especially in Hastings and Rye, and our visitor economy. Hybrid working offers opportunities for coastal communities to retain or draw in skilled, higher paid workers and digital technology can open doors to skills and education.