Memorandum by the British Resorts And
Destinations Association (BRADA) (CT 42)
INTRODUCTION
1. The British Resorts and Destinations
Association (BRADA) (formerly British Resorts Association) represents
60 local authorities (49 in England), all with substantial tourism
interests. Most are coastal, with responsibility for more than
150 coastal towns (and cities) and a multitude of smaller urban
coastal communities. The latter do not meet the general criteria
of a "town" and are not considered further. This is
not to say that smaller communities do not share common problems
with the towns, but merely that their issues are often different
in terms of their scale and effect, and thus different in terms
of their social and economic impacts upon the wider district within
which they sit.
1.1 Not all of the 150 towns were purpose
built, or subsequently adapted to cater for visitors, but the
majority were. Not all towns with a history of hosting tourists
retain their reliance on tourism as a social and economic driver,
but the bulk of them still do. Given tourism's importance we are
focusing our comments on the widely misunderstood and often maligned
coastal tourism industry. We assume that individual authorities
will give the specific local detail and examples. We also assume
that others will represent the interests of those few coastal
towns, which have little or no attachment to the visitor economy
and will raise those few issues, which have no direct or indirect
bearing on tourism, or vice versa.
1.2 Our area of expertise may lie in tourism,
but this brings us into daily contact with a raft of wider social
and economic issues. Tourism does not operate in isolation, but
is woven into the fabric of the host community, particularly where
tourism has been long established. As a tourism body, we have
often found ourselves at the forefront of the efforts to raise
the awareness of the much broader issues affecting coastal towns,
and arguing the case for a more tailored approach to what must
be a holistic programme of regeneration for each individual coastal
town. We welcome the opportunity to address the Inquiry's questions
and in parallel to clarify the realities of modern coastal destination
tourism and the continuing roles and functions of local government
in facilitating and nurturing tourism as one part of a wider balanced
local and sub regional economy.
1.3 Before we address some of the specifics
we believe it may be helpful to set the scene and refer to some
basic principles and to past studies and papers. Regrettably this
means that the memorandum is longer and broader ranging than the
committee and we might have wished. Nonetheless, we believe that
it is essential that the issues faced in coastal towns are seen
in their proper context. If they are not then there is a continued
likelihood that many Government programmes will simply address
the symptoms but not necessarily the root causes of the problem
experienced.
HAPPY HOLIDAY
MEMORIES
2.1 Attitudinal Barriers. Tourism suffers
from a presumption of knowledge and understanding. We all holiday,
everyone is a tourism expert. This may in part explain the common
attitudinal barrier, which can be presented simplistically as:
2.1.1 We all used to take our holidays at
the British coast, it must have been very big business. We now
all holiday abroad, leaving no one to holiday at home. (ie Direct
substitution from a fixed holiday pot).
2.1.2 This means no, or few, visitors to
the coast, which equals economic collapse, a fact evidenced by
the well-publicised social and economic problems seen in coastal
towns. (ie Everyone worked in tourism, now they can't and don't
and so must be unemployed).
2.1.3 A failing massive tourism industry
must have created large-scale unemployment and in turn lead to
all the associated social and economic problems. (ie What else
possibly could have?)
2.1.4 In such circumstances it would be a
waste of resources to try to improve social and economic conditions
by supporting a failed or failing tourism industry. (ie The solutions
must lie elsewhere outside tourism).
2.2 A Flawed Assumption. These are plausible
arguments, not least because there are elements of truth in them,
but it is by no means the full picture. The flawed arguments start
with the assumption that the "good old days" were that
good. The "heyday", to which today's industry is so
often compared, occupied a 30 year post war period between 1945
and 1975, peaking in terms of volume in 1973 and falling away
sharply thereafter. It was a high volume, low value, highly seasonal,
low reinvestment market, which met the relatively simple expectations
of the time; a time which is now nearer in terms of date and social
conditions to the end of the Second World War, than it is to today's
date and society. It would be truly depressing if another 30 years
on from 1975 domestic tourism had not moved on, just like every
other aspect of life in Britain has done.
2.3 The following extract from Professor
Victor Middleton's recently published work on tourism may help
put the period in its proper context:
2.3.1 "The British seaside retained
its majority hold on the domestic tourism market throughout most
of this period. Many regard the 1950s and 1960s as the golden
age of the resorts. In volume terms it was, but ominously for
the future, the leading contenders were still offering what, to
the more travel experienced customers, was now recognisably the
same tired product formula as they had 50 years earlier. Most
resorts were then approaching 100 years old and it showed. There
were clear signs of decline and decay, compounded by rising car
traffic congestion by the end of the 1960s, although such signs
were evidently not enough to stimulate effective response by the
local councils responsible for their areas. The unsustainable
economic realities of the 16-week holiday season were becoming
clearer every year and post-war 1940s accommodation standards
were increasingly perceived as just not good enough. There was
by now a clear international yardstick to measure such standards".
A MUCH CHANGED
INDUSTRY
3.1 A Bigger Market Place. Professor Middleton's
book British Tourism—The Remarkable Story of Growth (Elsevier
Butterworth-Heinemann ISBN: 0 7506 3374 3), contains a wealth
of information tracking and evidencing the changing face of the
UK's tourism industry. As the title suggests, domestic tourism,
including the coastal tourism sector has not collapsed, but changed
dramatically and largely for the better, to become a 365-day a
year enterprise, demanding very different responses, structures
and products. The simplistic views that everyone now goes abroad,
therefore no one holidays at home misses the point. For the average
UK resident, holiday no longer means just a week, or a fortnight
away in summer with one, perhaps two bank holidays and the odd
day trip away from home. Leisure is now all but a lifestyle, not
a luxury, and it is a lifestyle enjoyed by the majority, not just
a minority.
3.2 Not unsurprisingly in a small Nation
made up of 6,100 islands with a combined coastline of 9,040 miles
(9,335 km), the coast's and coastal town's intrinsic appeal continues
to attract a significant slice of the much bigger UK overseas
and domestic holiday, leisure and business travel cake. In terms
of value and volume today's domestic tourism market is of greater
consequence than that which went before, albeit a very different
market, supporting a different industry that now trades in the
wider visitor economy and not simply in tourism and/or leisure.
3.3 A Faltering Start. The challenge for
all coastal towns has been to adapt their ageing and, in part,
outdated infrastructure, in order to make their towns become year
round destinations, catering for a range of different types of
leisure and business visitors, seeking a wider range of different
experiences, across and throughout the full year. The majority
failed to rise to the challenge during the late 1970s and the
1980s, as the traditional short sharp summer trade rapidly declined
and before the new more dynamic and flexible markets developed
and expanded in the 1990s to fill parts of the void. In their
defence there was little or no structural support for the coastal
authorities during this period of traumatic change, nor any central
recognition that tourism could still be part of the solution to
much deeper economic and social problems, rather than being at
the root cause of them. In defence of Central Government they
had much bigger and, at the time, more pressing problems to address
in the older, mainly inland, industrial towns and cities. During
this period there was often a chronic lack of public and private
sector investment, which has only served to add to the scale of
today's task.
TOURISM HAS
ONLY EVER
BEEN ONE
PART OF
THE PUZZLE
4.1 A Mixed Economy. If post war tourism
was such a highly seasonal industry, it does beg the question,
how did these significant communities survive out of season? It
could be that tourism was so hugely profitable that no one needed
to work for two thirds of each year. In part it could have been
that many of the businesses were micro businesses and their lifestyle
motivated owners who had limited aspirations and got by in what
was a much simpler, less materialistic age. Or, as is near the
mark, it could have been that, all coastal towns had one or more
other significant partner industry within or surrounding them.
Typically these included: agriculture, fishing, local docks, ship
building and boat repair, coal and other mineral extraction (including
china clay), steel making and other heavy industry manufacture.
There was also a tradition of light engineering and general manufacture,
much of it tourism related, including coach building, caravan
manufacture and the manufacture of tourism supplies, for example
beach toys, novelties, confectionery and so on.
4.2 The Decline of Traditional Industries.
Some of these partner industries continue to thrive in the UK,
but there is a depressing theme running through the majority,
which have, to a greater or lesser degree, failed or moved abroad
over the last 40 years. The coastal towns, just like their inland
counterparts, have suffered from the effects of a wider industrial
decline, but in the coastal towns' case the otherwise dramatic
overnight impacts of large scale closures have been masked by
and then, in time, subsequently blamed in part upon the tourism
industry. Tourism is part of the solution, just as re-establishing
a broader based mixed economy has an important function to play
in redefining coastal towns.
4.3 Tourism The Hidden Employer. Another
important piece of the puzzle is the multiplier effect that tourism
has on all other activities in a community. Visitors not only
create direct and obvious demands themselves, they also generate
demands all down the supply chain, while also helping underpin
a wide range of other non tourist related front line businesses
and services, in excess of the number that the town on its own
would support. If anyone doubts that tourism has a hidden role
in sustaining communities and keeping the several more butchers,
bakers and candlestick makers, builders, window cleaners, printers
and so on in business, they need look no further than the indirect
impact that Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) had on rural communities.
No one recognised tourism's wider role in a rural environment
until tourism disappeared and took with it a swath of other front-line
and supply chain businesses. If the multiplier effect applies
in a quiet rural environment, then it will apply all the more
in an obviously busy tourist town. The move away from a highly
seasonal industry also has implications, as the multiplier effect
now increasingly underpins the small business model in destinations
throughout the full year and not just on a seasonal basis.
THE COASTAL
CONUNDRUM
5.1 So Good, Yet So Bad. In trying to establish
the case for holistic resort regeneration to include tourism in
the late 1990s, we have continually come up against the classic
coastal conundrum. If tourism really remains buoyant and apparently
has more potential, as we claim, then why are so many of the barriers
to tourism development associated with high levels of social depravation?
Could very similar problems be caused in very different coastal
towns, purely by the failure of often very different partner industries?
Or is there some other rogue factor at play?
5.2 The Seaside Economy Report. A major
part of the answer lies in The Sheffield Hallam University Study;
The Seaside Economy, published in 2003 (Sheffield Hallam University
IBSN: 184387 020 X). Although it is not our report, it is of such
significance that we are submitting it in full (Annexe A) to ensure
that the Committee has access to it.
5.3 The report's seven point summary is
so worthy of note that it is reproduced below. It states:
5.3.1 This report provides the first comprehensive
examination of economic change in Britain's seaside towns. The
focus is on the whole local economy, not just the tourist sector
but, in particular, the report explores how local labour markets
have responded to the challenge posed by the rise of the foreign
holiday. The widely held view is that this has resulted in the
unemployment that can now be observed in many seaside towns.
5.3.2 The research involved the assembly
of data on employment, unemployment, and other aspects of labour
market change over the whole of the last thirty years. This analysis
covers all Britain's 43 principal seaside towns. These have a
total population of about 3.1 million.
5.3.3 The research also involved an interview
survey of just over 1,000 non-employed adults of working age in
four towns—Blackpool, Great Yarmouth, Southport and Thanet
(which covers Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs). This gathered
a wide range of information on skills, work experience, benefits
and job aspirations.
5.4 The research generates seven main findings.
5.4.1 First, and perhaps most surprising
of all, there has actually been strong employment growth in seaside
towns. Between 1971 and 2001, total employment in seaside towns
grew by around 320,000, or more than 20%. A great deal of this
growth took place in the sectors most closely linked to tourism
as well as in the rest of the local service economy. This employment
growth occurred among both men and women, and among both full
and part-time workers. It indicates that the assumption that the
rise of the foreign holiday has led to severe economic decline
in British seaside resorts is well wide of the mark.
5.4.2 Second, in-migration to seaside towns
is outstripping local employment growth, and it is this that is
leading to continuing imbalance in seaside labour markets. Between
1971 and 2001, net in-migration to seaside towns increased their
working age population by 360,000. Most of this in-migration was
among the over 35s, and it is additional to inflows of people
over state pension age.
5.4.3 Third, a great deal of the in-migration
to seaside towns appears to be driven by residential preference.
Put simply, many people move to seaside towns because they want
to live there. Work-related reasons for moving are cited less
often—by fewer than one in five non-employed recent migrants,
for example. People under pension age who have moved to seaside
towns to retire account for relatively small numbers. Most migrate
with the expectation of continuing to work, at least initially.
5.4.4 Fourth, there is evidence that some
of the in-migration to seaside towns, and some of the resulting
unemployment is housing-driven. The closure and re-use of some
small hotels and boarding houses has created a stock of small
privately-rented flats that is often thought to draw in benefit
claimants from neighbouring areas and elsewhere. Among the in-comers
surveyed, around one in seven said that housing had been a factor
in their move. There is also evidence that the private rented
sector does indeed act as a point of entry to the local housing
market.
5.4.5 Fifth, there is extensive joblessness
in seaside towns beyond recorded, claimant unemployment. Taking
all seaside towns together, claimant unemployment is actually
only marginally higher than the national average, though in most
seaside towns it is well above the level in surrounding areas
and in a few towns it is high by national standards. However,
the survey findings indicate that there are large numbers of men
and women who are claiming sickness benefits (and therefore not
recorded as unemployed) who say they would like a job. There are
also large numbers of women presently looking after family or
home who say they would like paid employment. Overall, it is estimated
that the "real" rate of unemployment in seaside towns
is nearer 10% than the 4% recorded by claimant unemployment data.
5.4.6 Sixth, the jobless in seaside towns
are broadly similar to those in other areas. Non-employed men
of working age, for example, are a predominately older group,
with around two-thirds coming from manual occupations. They are
also more likely to describe themselves as long-term sick than
unemployed, and to claim Incapacity Benefit rather than Jobseeker's
Allowance. Just under half say they would like a full-time job,
but only a quarter also think there is a realistic chance of getting
one.
5.4.7 Seventh, the successful adaptation
of individual seaside towns has depended more on regional location
than on size. The seaside towns in the South West and, to a lesser
extent, the South East, have fared better in terms of employment
and in-migration than those in Wales, the North West and on the
East Coast. This seems to owe something to the strength of the
holiday trade in the South West and to the prosperity of the wider
South East economy, which spills over into seaside towns in the
region. The high-fliers include both large and small resorts,
as do the weaker performers, but net losses of people and jobs
are confined to just a handful of places.
5.4.8 The report concludes that seaside towns
should not be bracketed with Britain's other problem locations,
such as older industrial areas. Although some of the outcomes
in terms of claimant unemployment are similar, the underlying
economic trends are radically different. Unlike many other "one
industry towns", seaside towns do not, on the whole, suffer
from a downward spiral of decline.
5.4.9 Whilst there has clearly been restructuring
in the wake of the rise of the foreign holiday, the continuing
resilience of employment in and around the parts of the local
economy most dependent on tourism suggests that there has often
been successful adaptation. The seaside tourist industry remains
one to be nurtured, not written off as a lost cause.
5.5. Our Interpretation . Some have interpreted
the remark that coastal towns are not to be bracketed with the
older industrial towns to mean that the resort towns' problems
are not in the same league as, and are thus somehow less deserving
of the type of support, already enjoyed by many older industrial
towns. This is not the case. What is meant is that the problems
are of an equally serious nature, however since their causes and
some of their effects are markedly different, different solutions
will be required from those tried and tested in the older industrial
areas. This is surely a key message for ODPM and other Departments
and, critically, for any programmes they may wish to apply to
coastal towns.
5.6 Incapacity Benefit. The identification
of Incapacity Benefit as a major hidden contributor to economic
inactivity in coastal resort towns is also significant, particularly
in light of recent announcements concerning the reform of the
Incapacity Benefit system. This may be yet another area where
action tailored to meet the peculiar convergence of circumstance
in coastal towns will be required. Bringing individuals off incapacity
benefit and into suitable employment is a challenge. To do so
in areas where there are both significant pockets of incapacity
and a series of external factors militating against general employment
growth will take some considerable effort and imagination. Targeted
programmes may be one solution, removing the remaining barriers
to general growth would be a far more fruitful approach.
THE SYMPTOMS
OF COASTAL
TOWNS
6.1 The Common Symptoms. Professor Fothergill's
report makes it clear that while the resort towns have actually
done remarkably well to date, they have had to run much faster
than other towns simply to avoid drowning in, what has in part
been an imported problem. Many of the symptoms of the in-migration
of adults of working age outstripping otherwise healthy job growth
were identified in the British Resorts Association's, 1999 Seaside
Resorts—Behind the Fac"ade and the English Tourism
Council's 2001 Sea Changes reports. Although at the time, without
the benefit of the Sheffield Hallam work, we could not fully explain
what all the primary causes might be. The earlier reports both
identified the common issues as:
6.1.1 Higher than average tourism and service
sector dependency.
6.1.2 Low rates of economic activity.
6.1.3 High annual average claimant costs.
6.1.4 Low wage economies.
6.1.5 Low comparative levels of GDP per head.
6.1.6 Higher number of single person households
as a %age of all households.
6.1.7 Significant numbers of seaside resorts
in the worst deteriorating districts within the DETR's 1996 Index
of Regeneration.
6.1.8 High number of elderly residents.
6.2 Physical Barriers. These reports also
identified common unique physical barriers which being beside
the sea creates. The first is that, "coastal towns are peripheral
to the main markets and the primary transport infrastructure that
links them. With land access of at best 180 degrees, attracting
new investment to diversify local economies has proved difficult
without Government support". The issue of physical access
remains critical for many coastal towns. With the sea limiting
catchment and distribution areas it is a brave business which
voluntarily seeks to locate by the sea, particularly when typical
road and/or rail access is poor. But access is not just an industrial
issue, it also severely impacts on the visitor economy and it
limits the town's attractiveness for both inward and outward commuting
options. Service and manufacturing sector industries, the visitor
economy and commuting, combined form the key ingredients for holistic
regeneration. Access issues hamper all three. Currently National
transport policy does not recognise the special need of coastal
towns, being primarily designed for inland urban communities and
for the different economic, social and geographic conditions that
apply to them.
6.3 Public Realm. The nature of the harsh
coastal environment and the demands of maintaining public realm
are also highlighted as major, uniquely coastal town problems,
as was the additional burdens of pollution control, environmental
and public safety demands imposed by promenades and beaches. If
coastal towns are to be successful as both places to live and
work and as places to visit, it is essential that the public realm
is maintained in near pristine condition and that the resident/visitor
services meet modern expectation. Unfortunately, the public realm
in coastal towns and, in particular, in purpose built resort towns,
is typically on a grade scale. Also while it may have much historic
and architectural merit, it is often of very limited commercial
value. Piers, parks, promenades, Victorian shelters, bandstands
and so on are all part of the fabric of coastal towns. They are
largely here to stay and thus represent a significant and unavoidable
financial burden on the local authority.
6.4 Capital Programmes. Fortunately in recent
years some of the long overdue capital works in many coastal towns
have started to receive attention. European and UK structural
funding, lottery grants and latterly Development Agency inspired
programmes have been directed towards some coastal towns. The
approach has been varied and appears to owe as much to luck of
geographical location and administrative boundary, as it does
to identifiable need and to any clear National strategy, or plan
for the regeneration of coastal towns. Some towns have done very
well from past and ongoing residual UK and European programmes.
We also now see some Development Agencies actively seeking to
improve the lot of their coastal towns, while others have different
priorities, perhaps understandably, given their own markedly different
financial resources.
6.5 Revenue Programmes. What is certainly
not being addressed properly anywhere, in our view, is the revenue
spending issues. There is simply not enough allowance being made
to cover the cost of maintaining the inherited and newly created
public realm, or for the additional cost of dealing with the demands
created by the sea. Nor is there proper allowance for the cost
of hosting visitors and providing the services that they rightly
expect, including specific coastal services like beach lifeguards.
Unless coastal towns are maintained and serviced properly they
will not be chosen as places to live, work or to visit, particularly
given their peripheral nature and the transport issues already
highlighted. Coastal towns are special places but then they need
to be kept special, in order to overcome their inherent disadvantages
of being out on a limb.
6.6 New Regional Support Structures. The
issue of revenue spending has been further confused by the different
RDAs attempts to rationalise and streamline tourism support. Most
of the differing approaches applied have recognised the local
authority role in providing basic infrastructure, like parking,
street cleaning, bins, public toilets, parks and gardens, and
tourist information. However, some have failed to understand that
all local authorities provide these prerequisites of the visitor
experience for their own residents, regardless of the status of
the town as a destination. The real issues are actually about
the management of those facilities in genuine tourist destinations,
so they meet the often-unpredictable ebbs and flows and critically
the additional levels of demand created by visitors. We regard
this Destination Management function to be a role best run at
the destination level and by default a function usually best left
to the local authority, or a local authority led or facilitated
partnership. Beyond this in truly popular destinations, including
many of the coastal towns, local authorities often have a much
bigger role, that of co-ordinating, facilitating and, where necessary,
leading the public private sector partnership efforts of the town
to promote and market itself. Many of the more popular destinations
have well established, highly professional tourism departments
which pull the town's disparate tourism products together and
run or facilitate things like events programmes, which would seldom
be organised for the benefit of the whole town by the private
sector operating alone.
6.7 A failure to recognise that there are
at least three different levels of local authority role, depending
on local circumstance, has served to undermine and threaten some
of the more successful, well-established local authority led partnerships
and tourism structures. Arguably while doing very little, yet,
to improve the situation where the visitor economy is not a major
economic driver, although there are now signs that as the new
arrangements settle in, attitudes are changing. In the meantime,
there is the ever present danger that cash starved local authorities
may be tempted to abandon non statutory tourism support, merely
ticking the tourism box by dint of the fact that they are providing
the basic infrastructure that they already supply for their residents.
If they are told often enough that that is the extent of their
important role in tourism, then we should not be surprised when
they decide that that is all they will do.
6.8 Destination Management Organisations.
The term "Destination Management Organisation" (DMO),
and variations on the theme are being used widely across all the
RDA areas for new structure and organisations. Previously in local
authority circles the term meant the organisation that physically
ran and organised all aspects of tourism delivery in a definable
destination, usually a town or a recognised tourist area. Since
there is no national definition of a destination, or of what a
management organisation manages or does, and since we now have
a plethora of new bodies claiming to be the destination managers
there is currently considerable room for confusion. At the local
level businesses are not yet necessarily sure yet who they should
be working with and to on what aspect of tourism. At the national
level we are told that everything is now under control because
tourism is now being managed by a streamlined system of something
in the order of 110 DMO across England. We all know its not a
National system as such and that instead of the old understandable
local authority, Regional and National tourist board structure,
we have a multitude of different regional and sub regional structures.
The question is do they know it and understand the implications
for national delivery and for national policy. If tourism interests
find it confusing what hope for ODPM and others trying to deliver
broader policies with tourism implications? Thankfully DCMS, the
National Tourist Board, the RDAs and the industry are beginning
to address some of these issues. A good starting place would be
a clearer definition of terminology and of roles and functions.
Given that we may now be stuck with a system where roles and functions
may vary significantly from region to region and even between
sub regions, a mapping exercise of who does what, where may have
to suffice.
6.9 Accommodation Imbalances. The reports
also discuss the oversupply of large Victorian and Edwardian properties,
many of which have fallen into a spiral of low revenue usage and
decline. Lately this problem has, in part, begun to address itself,
particularly in more desirable, or more genteel destinations,
or in those towns where rail and/or road links are set to improve
(South East Coast fast rail links for example). Property values
have increased sufficiently to make redevelopment for private
housing a viable proposition. But this is not a universal trend
and it seldom addresses the very worst of the problems. Ironically
it can also help create others.
6.10 Houses In Multiple Occupation. Some
towns continue to suffer from significant numbers of poor quality
Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) which, because of their state
of repair, blight the locality. Sometimes it is simply that the
town remains an unattractive proposition for redevelopment, often
because of access issues, in others it may simply be the sheer
numbers of HMOs in operation. Where the housing market has taken
a positive hand, it can result in a shortage of affordable public
and private sector housing which, in turn, can inadvertently support
the viability of the very worst quality HMOs. The strength of
the property market can also put pressure on hotels and other
tourism stock in prime locations, as it is not always the properties
that the councils, residents or the tourism industry would most
like to see reconverted that are.
6.11 Affordable Housing. A supply of affordable,
good quality public and private sector housing is not just a socially
desirable aspiration. Given the Sheffield Hallam estimates of
upwards of 10% of the adult working age population being economically
inactive, we would have something in the order of 150,000 unemployed
in 43 principal resort towns, most of whom will struggle to afford
their own homes, or to pay high rents. Beyond that we must recognise
that a good deal of the tourism industry employment remains low
skilled, low paid and, in parts at least, still seasonal. Many
of those in work cannot afford expensive accommodation and those
out of work but in accommodation, can not always afford to take
up work, particularly on a seasonal basis. It is our contention
that it is not purely a lack of skills, or willingness in the
UK workforce that is driving up the number of overseas workers
in the tourism industry. It is the willingness of "temporary"
overseas workers to live in the typically temporary, on the job
accommodation made available to them, which is a major contributory
factor.
6.12 Targeted Programmes. The work of Housing
Associations, and programmes like Living Over The Shop have all
contributed to improving the physical condition of property, while
increasing the availability of the affordable accommodation. But
more work is required to break the cycle of slow decline, disrepair
and negative impact on the locality, followed by eventual conversion
back to expensive private housing stock. There needs to be specific
programmes designed to help move a significant proportion of larger
poor quality HMOs in to affordable good quality housing in coastal
towns. Inevitably there will always be some poorer quality HMOs
in operation and indeed a clientele who will seek out this type
of accommodation by choice. The problem in some coastal towns
is the numbers of poor quality HMOs in operation and lack of choice
being offered to lower income residents.
6.13 Linked Concerns. We also identify high
numbers of single households and the high levels of pupil turnover
in some schools as typical coastal town issues. Without over stressing
the point both are often housing related, the schooling issue
being linked to high levels of adult transience within and very
often between seaside towns.
6.14 Retirement and The Elderly. Finally
higher than average numbers of elderly people are identified as
an issue. This should not be confused with the issue of retirement
and the continuing attractiveness of coastal towns as retirement
havens, although there is a direct link. The retired usually bring
with them resources and contribute positively to the economy and
the social fabric. The problem is that a constant influx of retired
people distortion in the age profile and as a direct consequence
coastal resort towns end up with much higher numbers of elderly,
vulnerable residents needing care and support than would otherwise
be the case in non retirement towns. The popularity of coastal
towns as the location for many commercial and charitable retirement
and care homes (driven in the past by the property profile) has
also added to the pressure on local support services by drawing
in already elderly residents from elsewhere. In addition the retired
inadvertently distance themselves from the support of family and
long term friends. Years down the line when partners have passed
on, the elderly in coastal towns are far more likely to need residential
care, or at home support from their local authority, than those
who have stayed within easy reach of their own families. Needless
to say the allocations to coastal local authority social services
and to local NHS budgets take little, or no account of the retirement
factor.
INQUIRY QUESTIONS
7.1 The Case For Special Initiatives. We
believe that there is a case for a special initiative to tackle
the needs of coastal towns, or at the very least an initiative,
which ensures that existing initiatives and programmes recognise
the uniquely different conditions driving the seemingly familiar
social and economic problems experienced in seaside towns.
7.2 Throughout this memorandum we have stressed
the need for tailored solutions. Our experience suggests that
this means tailored for both the unusual but common coastal factors
and then tailored again to meet the specific set of circumstances
in each town. Coastal towns share common problems but they are
not all the same and a one size fits all coastal solution, is
not the answer. We have also stressed the need for an holistic
approach to regeneration. Our experience suggests that there is
a raft of diverse social and economic issues, which appear to
stand-alone but which actually inter react, one upon the other
in a circular fashion. By way of illustration, it would be a pointless
exercise improving the social housing stock, without also improving
job prospects. Tourism job prospects, in particular, are unlikely
to improve much unless the public realm is improved and is then
properly maintained. However, poor housing stock and the economic
consequences of high levels of economic inactivity often impact
visually on the public realm and effect the level of funding available
to maintain it. Thus all three aspects need to be addressed in
parallel and if they are there is the added benefit that a currently
negative cycle, become a virtuous circle.
7.3 ODPM's Work . Is ODPMs work in coastal
towns effective, well-focused or adequately funded? The answer
to this question is that it is almost impossible for us to tell
as it is relatively unclear to us what ODPM and others are doing,
where, with what, why and when. There does seem to be much more
happening in coastal towns by way of programmes and projects now.
However, there is little sense, from where we stand, that there
is some National strategy, or an overarch plan of holistic coastal
town regeneration driving it, but rather there is a mass of passing
opportunities which are offered to, or sought out by some authorities
but not by others. Some authorities are clearly more skilled at
putting forward their case than others and a combination of success
and experience does tend in our view to breed further success.
Whether it is the skill and the tenacity of the local authority,
the obviously greater needs of some towns, or the focused approach
of ODPM and others that have lead to some towns getting more support
than others is open to question. As to funding availability, the
question is how much is adequate? The fact that there are a raft
of serious social, housing and environmental issues still to be
resolved in coastal towns would suggest that ODPM's efforts and
those of others in coastal towns could be better funded.
7.4 Liaison With Other Departments. We do
not have a view on the effectiveness of ODPM's liaison with other
Departments in key areas such as employment, migration, and social
housing and co-operation with local authorities. This is primarily
because we do not see their liaison in action, nor are we particularly
aware of seeing any obvious signs of the outcomes of liaison.
If there is any fault involved, it is as much ours for not engaging
with ODPM much more than we currently do.
7.5 Regional Initiatives. Several of the
RDAs have instigated coastal initiative, or applied regional initiatives
to coastal towns. Other RDAs, as far as we are aware, have not
specifically attempted to address coastal town issues across their
region, although individual projects in individual coastal town
may have been supported. We would like to see specific coastal
initiatives being instigated in every region, primarily to ensure
that the specific coastal issues are properly identified and thus
adequately addressed and to encourage a more holistic approach
to coastal town regeneration for all the reasons already stated
above. We also believe that the disparity in RDA funding is already
leading to a serious disparity in investment in to different coastal
towns in and across different regions. Certainly for those with
continuing tourism aspirations this has very serious implications.
Those that are regenerated will continue to do well out of the
visitor economy, those that are not will need to look elsewhere
and in all likelihood will find that the barrier to tourism success
are the selfsame barriers to other economic activities.
7.6 Longer Term Security. We are concerned
that the RDAs may take a classic intervene, solve and withdraw
approach. For capital projects this is less of a problem, but
for the longer term we see coastal towns needing steady ongoing
investment and adequate revenue funding of service and of public
realm provision, particularly in support of the tourism industry.
Some of the new tourism support structure recently put in place
and currently funded by the RDAs have inadvertently sidelined
the local authorities, assuming seemingly that the long-term future
lies with ongoing private sector investment. Years of local authority
experience suggests that the private sector can be rather more
fickle, supporting part publicly funded schemes, where it makes
sense to do so and abandoning them when significant public funding
starts to dry up. Of equal concern is that history shows that
when times are hard and the supporting mechanisms are most needed,
are the very times when the private sector is forced to pull its
financial support.
7.7 The Success of RDA. It is still far
too early to judge the success of the RDAs in supporting and developing
the economies coastal towns. Even where there are obvious signs
of success it usually transpires that the groundwork predated
the RDAs and that what we see now is the reward of past work.
What is more telling is the amount of energy and resource being
directed in to future and ongoing projects. The degree of activity
today often links to past efforts, for example RDAs not unreasonably
tend to support ongoing projects in areas that have access to
residual EU funding ie areas and projects where they can achieve
greater financial leverage. Some RDAs clearly see coastal towns
as one of their priorities and are putting imagination and significant
funding into regeneration. Others may give them rather less priority,
however, given the disparity in RDA funding this is perhaps hardly
surprising.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
AND CONCLUSIONS
8.1 We welcome this opportunity to respond
in to the committee's enquiry and would also welcome an opportunity
at some later date to flesh out some or all of the many areas
touched upon. In summary these are:
8.2 We are taking a tourism viewpoint but
tourism affects many coastal towns and interacts directly with
a broad range of social and economic issues and visa versa. We
believe that currently there remains a real danger that the right
problems could be addressed in coastal towns for the wrong reasons,
and thus potentially in the wrong way. Tourism continues to have
a vital function within a wider balanced economy, which can be
best achieved via a tailored holistic programme of regeneration
for individual towns (1.1 to 1.3).
8.3 There is a fundamental misunderstanding
about the causes of social and economic problems in many coastal
towns, the received wisdom is that failed formerly massive tourism
industry is largely to blame (2.1 to 2.3).
8.4 This is not the case, a significant
changed industry has, after a difficult period in the late 1970s
to late 1980s, been created (3.1 to 3.3). That industry's success
has masked the decline of other traditional coastal partner industries.
(4.1 to 4.2). The multiplier effect of tourism has spread that
success into the supply chain and underpins the activity of many
other businesses and services in coastal towns. (4.3).
8.5 Many of the problems experienced in
coastal resort towns are caused in part, or are sustained by excessive
in-migration of adults of working age, which has outstripped otherwise
impressive economic growth. This is a hugely important factor
and one only being identified by Sheffield Hallam University as
recently as 2003 (5.1 to 5.4.9).
8.6 Although as serious in their nature
as the problems experienced in the older industrial towns the
cause and effects are markedly different, Therefore logically
the tried and tested template solutions used in the older industrial
towns may also need to be different (5.5).
8.7 The high number of Incapacity Benefit
claimants identified also throws up some interesting sub issues
given recent announcements regarding reform of the Incapacity
Benefit system (5.6).
8.8 Despite adaptation of the coastal economy,
there remains a series of common social and economic problems
seen in most coastal resort towns (6.1 to 6.1.8). There are also
serious physical barriers associated with being peripheral to
main markets and the primary transport infrastructure. Failure
to address rail and road access issues is blocking the development
of the three most important legs of coastal regeneration, which
are: the recreation of a broad balance of service and manufacturing
industries, the visitor economy and inward and outward commuting
opportunities. (6.2).
8.9 Coastal towns also have serious issues
regarding the nature and scale of their public realm and the harsh
coastal environment. (6.3). Capital programmes are now starting
to address some of the long term capital under investment issues.
However, different RDAs with different resources understandably
have had to take differing approaches. (6.4).
8.10 Revenue issues are not being addressed.
There are insufficient allocations to meet the needs of maintaining
the inherited and new public realm, or for the additional cost
of dealing with the demands of the sea. Nor is their proper allowance
for the cost of hosting visitors, or providing the services for
visitors and residents that they rightly expect, and which are
needed to help overcome the inherent disadvantages of being out
on a limb. (6.5).
8.11 The different new and untried tourism
structures being imposed by the different RDAs are not helping
maintain the active engagement of all local authorities. At the
heart of the problem is a failure to recognise that there are
different levels of local authority engagement and at least three
different potential levels of role, depending on the relative
importance of tourism (6.6 to 6.7). Confusion over who is currently
doing what, compounded by the use of vague terminology to describe
new organisations is not helping the situation. Given confusion
and financial pressures, there remains an ever-present danger
that some local authorities will abandon their historic role of
co-ordinating the activities of a disparate tourism industry (6.8).
8.12 A fundamental issue in most coastal
towns is the imbalances in housing stock and the impact of an
oversupply of larger Victorian and Edwardian properties. The housing
market has started to mop up some of the problem properties but
in doing so it fails to address the issues of affordable good
quality housing for both the unemployed and for those working
in the often low wage service sector heavy coastal town economies.
(6.9 to 6.12). Many of the other social and economic issues, for
example high numbers of single households and high levels of pupil
turnover in some schools are to large degree housing driven. (6.13).
8.13 Coastal towns also suffer from problems
of caring for higher than average numbers of elderly residents.
Some of the elderly are imported directly into care and other
homes, which were themselves attracted to coastal towns by the
property profile. The bigger problem comes from the coast's attractiveness
as a retirement haven. The retired usually bring with them resources
and contribute positively to the economy and the social fabric.
However, when they come in numbers year on year they also distort
the age profile, leading directly to higher numbers of genuinely
elderly people living in the coastal towns at any one time. The
fact that the retired deliberately distance themselves from family
means that down the line they are far more likely to rely on local
authority or NHS care, neither of which receive additional resources
in recognition of the localised issue. (6.14).
8.14 There is a case for specific initiatives
to cater for the peculiar causes of the otherwise familiar common
problems seen in coastal towns. Coastal towns need tailored solutions
for their special common issues and tailored again for the specific
circumstances in each town. The initiatives need to be holistic,
tackling a range of issues and preferably tackling them concurrently
(7.1 to 7.2).
8.15 We are not convinced that ODPM, or
indeed anyone else's efforts in coastal towns is effective, well-focused
or adequately funded because we get no sense, perhaps incorrectly,
that the many programmes taking place are necessarily part of
a specific programme, or working to any coherent National strategy
or plan. In equally simplistic terms, since there is still much
to be done the adequacy of the resources available must be questioned.
(7.3).
8.16 We have no view on ODPMs liaison with
other departments on key issues, simply because we have had not
seen that liaison in action, nor are we overtly aware of seeing
the outcomes of that liaison. The fault, if there is one, lies
as much with us as it does with ODPM, or others. (7.4).
8.17 Several RDAs have instigated specific
coastal programmes, or applied general programmes to coastal towns,
others with less available resources have been less active. We
would like to see specific programmes if only to ensure that the
specific problems of coastal towns are properly recognised and
therefore properly addressed. There is disparity in RDA funding
for coastal towns, and while this is understandable given the
disparity in their resources, it has serious implications for
those towns which will effectively be left behind by their peer
and competitor towns (7.5).
8.18 We have serious concerns about the
long-term security of the RDAs support for coastal towns and,
in particular, for the support of tourism, which has traditionally
needed modest ongoing publicly funded co-ordination. Some RDAs
are sidelining the traditional local authority based co-ordinating
organisations and partnerships, setting up instead new bodies,
which are looking largely to the private sector for their funding.
Past experience suggests that as over time the proportion of public
funding decreases the private sector support rapidly follows suit.
In addition in the all too often times of crisis, when the supporting
bodies are most needed, the private sector can least afford to
contribute (7.6).
8.19 It is largely too early to tell if
the RDAs have been successful in their programmes in coastal towns.
Where there is obvious success, the origins of the work predate
the RDA. There is much good work going on and much to be optimistic
about in some areas. In others, where the overall funding is more
limited, there is much less progress and much less to be optimistic
about. (7.7).
8.20 A co-ordinated effort to address the
cause and effect of coastal towns' social and economic problems
is both justified and needed. The changing face of tourism may
in many coastal towns have helped in part mask the worst of the
problems. Without a step change it is unlikely that tourism will
continue to be able to cover the gaps, or grow to reach its full
potential. Access housing and revenue funding being the three
common critical barriers, to the holistic redevelopment of coastal
towns.
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