Memorandum by Torbay Council (CT 48)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(1) Torbay Council appreciates the opportunity
to present this paper and would welcome further opportunities
to develop its ideas to Members of the Committee.
(2) Most coastal towns face very similar
problems and issues and this paper is based mainly upon Torbay's
experiences but these are equally applicable to all other coastal
towns.
(3) The current regional structure is too
large to meet the demands of coastal towns who often have to compete
against major conurbations for funding.
(4) Coastal towns tend to attract a higher
proportion of elderly residents compared to the national position
which has a consequential impact on certain services.
(5) Coastal towns also tend to have a lower
than average number of residents in the under 50 age bracket,
often because the industry is not present to retain the young
highly qualified residents.
(6) Peripherality is often an issue for
coastal towns which has an impact on transport systems and prospective
investment in its maintenance to these towns.
(7) Coastal towns, of which many were built
in Victorian and Edwardian times, now need significant investment
to maintain the infrastructure, much of it dating from when there
was the initial investment.
(8) Transience and migration brings a number
of problems especially in the areas of social care, housing and
educational provision.
(9) With a heavy dependence upon the tourist
industry, there are disproportionate levels of environmental costs
which are not reflected in the current revenue support grant.
(10) Torbay believes that by the use of
economic regeneration of the area through new industries or re-direction
of the core but declining tourist and marine industries would
ease some of the problems. However, this requires significant
financial support from government agencies who are not always
able to respond quickly to emerging opportunities.
INTRODUCTION
1. Torbay Council welcomes this opportunity
to contribute to the inquiry into Coastal Towns by the Parliamentary
Committee and wishes to bring forward some specific examples of
the issues facing coastal towns which it is hoped will contribute
to the Members' understanding. The remit given to the Committee
is very wide for the contributions sought and whilst the Council
could contribute on a wide range of issues, it will focus on its
current strategic approach and highlight areas where assistance
is currently being provided and further assistance would be useful.
2. It is clear from discussions with colleagues
in other coastal town authorities that the issues facing Torbay
are very similar to those being faced in other towns such as Blackpool,
Southend, Brighton etc It was decided that the Council's response
would be based upon the "Torbay" experience but that
the comments could and should equally be applied to the other
towns in a similar position.
3. Torbay operates a series of integrated
strategies that cover the complete spectrum of Torbay residents
from the very young to the elderly which is aimed at helping Torbay
develop its full potential. It is our intention to highlight these
strategies and identify both how the ODPM, or associated government
departments, help with these or could lend further assistance
to help alleviate some of the problems which are certainly inherent
in Torbay and, from associated evidence, also prevalent in other
coastal towns.
CONTEXTUAL AND
GENERAL GEOGRAPHIC
AND HISTORICAL
ISSUES
4. Torbay is made up of the three coastal
towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham and has a population of
132,500 with an average age of 43.2 years (38.6 nationally).
5. Torbay is part of the South West region
which covers a geographical area of 24,314 sq km and extends from
Gloucester in the north, Swindon in the east, the main coastal
towns of Bournemouth and Poole in the south and Lands End in the
west. From Swindon in the east to Truro in the west, the two principal
population centres at each extreme, it is a total of 170 miles.
Clearly with this distance and area, Torbay is a very small area
although in terms of population it is 2.6% of the whole south
west population and is the 10 largest conurbation in the South
West region.
6. With regards to areas identified for
growth and support in the South West the latest population estimates
do show significant disparity in size for the authority areas
mentioned.
Table 1
2004 MID YEAR ESTIMATES FOR OTHER LAs MENTIONED
| South Gloucestershire UA
| 247,500 |
| Swindon,UA | 182,200 |
| Bristol, City of UA | 393,900
|
| Exeter | 115,200 |
| Plymouth, City of UA | 244,400
|
| Torbay UA | 132,500 |
| |
However, the main areas identified for growth and support,
are Gloucester, Swindon, Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth where, in
some cases, the populations are not significantly greater than
Torbay's but are seen as regional centres. None of which are coastal
towns, with the possible exception of Plymouth, which has different
issues with regards to its marine and naval backgrounds.
7. Like other Coastal Towns, Torbay has a large proportion
of residents aged 50 and over.
Table 2
PROPORTION OF TOTAL POPULATION AGED 50 YEARS AND OVER
(2004 MID YEAR ESTIMATE)
| England & Wales | 33.8%
|
| Blackpool UA | 38.3% |
| Southend-on-Sea UA | 36.5% |
| Plymouth UA | 33.3% |
| Torbay UA | 43.2% |
| Cornwall and Isles of Scilly | 41.9%
|
| |
8. The latest subnational population projections show
Torbay to be a high growth authority, with a projected increase
in population of 15.3% (2004 to 2020), compared to a 7.3% increase
for England for the same period. Most noticeably, the number of
residents aged 50 and over is projected to exceed 50% of the population
in 2020 compared to the national projection of 39.3%
9. With such an area and limited government support evidence
indicates that 80% of regional funding goes to the 5 areas mentioned
in paragraph 5 and the rest of the region, including all the coastal
areas, are immediately only able to contest for 20% of the total
funding.
10. Our view is that the region is too great and is not
able to sustain such a mixed need. This is further evidenced by
the GVA figures for the region. Swindon has a GVA of 147%, whereas
Torbay's GVA 62% and Cornwall's is 63%. This similar analysis
can be seen in other coastal towns as shown below:
Table 3
2003 GROSS VALUE ADDED (ONS)
| % of England |
% of Region |
| Torbay | 62 | 68
|
| Cornwall | 63 | 69
|
| Blackpool | 68 | 78
|
| Southend | 77 | 82
|
| Plymouth | 80 | 89
|
| | |
Once again the disparities of both the coastal towns with
the rest of the country and within the region can be seen and
is apparent as to why we believe that the current large regional
approach is not working for the coastal areas. To this end we
believe that specific aid should be directed at the coastal towns
and we also believe that the Government should review its regional
structure and consider smaller regional areas that do not have
to cover such significant large geographical and economically
diverse areas.
11. Linked with this is the issue of peripherality and
that most coastal towns are away from major direct transport links.
We would use Torbay as an example, but the points made here are
common to other coastal towns.
(a) Until recently the main motorway route to the South
West (M5) was deemed not to be of national significance.
(b) The main trunk route to the South West (A303) has
large lengths of single carriage track and is not deemed a major
priority.
(c) The main route into Torbay (A380) is not deemed a
trunk route and therefore cannot attract national funding to support
the improvement of the route into Torbay which would then open
up significant possible regeneration opportunities which are currently
not available because of time taken to get into Torbay from the
motorway network.
(d) There is not a regular direct train service to London
from Torbay, but the line serving the three stations in Torbay
are considered to be on a branch line which further enhances the
image of peripherality.
(e) The rail line to the South West, from Paddington,
is not being considered for upgrades to offer the opportunity
of new high speed trains being able to operate to the South West
and the line to Waterloo is still single track in many parts.
12. Many of the coastal towns saw investment and expansion
in the Victorian and Edwardian times with significant investment
in the infrastructure at that time to standards which were appropriate.
Whilst this infrastructure has served the locality well over the
subsequent years, no further major investment has taken place
and many of these towns are now witnessing the need for major
repairs or renewal in the infrastructure. So, in the case of Torbay,
sea defences, promenades and drainage systems are all in need
of significant repairs and much of the accommodation is similarly
in need of repair. It is understood that other authorities will
also be making similar points.
13. Similarly the traditional industries which sustained
these towns, namely tourism and marine related industries, have
seen declines due to the changing nature of holidays, with a direct
correlation between the increase in cheap package holiday flights
abroad and the decline in "at home" holidays. Similarly
the old industries of fishing and marine engineering have seen
a decline due to the changing global and European economic climate.
14. The points in the above paragraph relate more to
the long term regenerative effects of coastal towns and will come
about through capital investment either directly in the community
via grants or will open up opportunities through investment in
the infrastructure of the area. Many coastal towns though also
suffer deprivation of resources through the revenue account also
and once again we will use Torbay as an example of the issues
concerned.
15. The Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004 places Torbay
as the 94 most deprived local authority in England for the rank
of average score, whilst it is accepted that the majority of Torbay
has limited levels of deprivation, Torbay does have very severe
pockets of deprivation.
16. Unlike other coastal towns, Torbay is not in receipt
of Neighbourhood Renewal funding despite the severe pockets of
multiple deprivation. Torbay is just outside the criteria set
by the NRU to receive funding, and there are concerns that this
could increase the levels of deprivation in Torbay without additional
resources to target specific areas of need.
IMPACT OF
POPULATION MIGRATION/TRANSIENCE
17. In common with many coastal towns there is significant
inward migration into Torbay which significantly outweighs the
net decline of the resident population and the outward migration
of highly educated school leavers seeking tertiary education who
do not then return to live permanently in the area until their
mid to late 50's. This brings a number of significant problems,
both social and physical.
18. These issues include, not listed in any specific
order:
With the particularly heavy weighting of the elderly population
as a %age of the population compared to the national averages
(as detailed in paragraph 6 table 2) the Council has to invest
in its Adult social care budget to a significant extent. It is
recognised that the Government provides funding for these services
through the local government spending formula but the particular
problem this Council has faced in recent years is the transfer
of specific grants for identifiable clients or services into general
funding but where the formulaic approach means the funding is
not transferred on a "pound for pound" basis, even though
the client still requires the same level of service or the actual
level of service is still required generally. To alleviate some
of the problems, this Council has merged its adult social care
provision with the Primary Care Trust to create a new Adult Care
Trust with effect from 1 December 2005 with the approval and encouragement
of the CSCI Inspectorate and the Department of Health. Although
this should bring about some economies of scale for the Council
it should also provide a better package of care for the clients
with their total needs being assessed by one individual rather
than a group of people. However, in common with most similar authorities
the funding provided continues to fall short of that required
to meet the increasing demands and more realistic levels of care
funding is needed to support these services.
The pressure on the adult social care budget is not just from
the elderly but also from other groups of society. High suicide
rates are very common in coastal towns and the implicit mental
illness which causes such events to take place raises major budgetary
pressures on both mental health and social care budgets.
There are also significant issues within the Children's social
care budgets which the Council, in common with many similar Councils,
has to address. The Council has had a large number of children
with Care Orders, often related to transience issues (see below)
which require the children to be moved into specialist and often
expensive care facilities away from Torbay. The Council, in conjunction
with CSCI has been developing a strategy to reduce the reliance
on "out of area" placements and to try and resolve any
issues at source before serious care intervention is necessary.
However, also in common with the many other local authorities,
the funding provided through the formulae used is often inadequate
to meet the needs of the area.
The reliance on service industries, particularly Tourism has
created a low wage economy, common to many coastal towns. Members'
attention is once again drawn to table 3 shown in paragraph 9,
GVA. Consequently an affordability ratio of earnings against house
prices, shows Torbay to be significantly less affordable that
the national figure. With 8.4m tourist nights Torbay remains the
largest overnight destination in the country. Due to its natural
beauty and the long standing tourist business, Torbay is also
a popular place to retire to and relocate to. The profile of inward
migration shows larger proportions of retired people and people
either on low income or benefit moving to Torbay. The housing
profile is also unique, with 8% social housing, 17% private rented
and the remainder owned. The housing waiting list has 4,300 households
on it and a recent housing needs survey suggests housing needs
compare to inner London. Like many coastal town the opportunities
for growth and development are limited by the coastal zone and
surrounding countryside and planning restrictions.
Being a coastal, tourist area the Council has had to develop
a series of strategies to ensure that Torbay is an attractive
area both to live in and for people to come to visit as holiday
destination. Therefore the Council follows an approach which is
aimed at producing a clean, tidy and safe Torbay.
However the issues that are prevalent as a consequence include:
During the tourist periods of May through to, and
including, October the amount of litter collected each month from
litter bins ranges from 40% to 270% more than is taken in the
winter months, assumed to be solely residents. In total an extra
237 tonnes of rubbish was collected during 2004-05 above an average
monthly collection based upon winter collection. Taking into account
collection and disposal costs, including landfill tax, this extra
rubbish costs Torbay residents £45,000 to collect and dispose
of. Information to date in respect of 2005-06 suggests that the
trend is continuing at a similar level.
In order to make the environment pleasant for both
residents and visitors, the beaches need to be kept clear of seaweed
and other rubbish. In 2004-05, 1,725 tonnes was collected and
disposed of and during the summer period of 2005-06 2,235 tonnes
has been disposed of, at an estimated cost of £80,000 per
annum.
(3) Costs of providing beach services
Whilst every effort is made to recover costs of
beach services through charging for such things as concessions,
equipment hire etc there is still a net cost to the Council, and
thus to the residents, for providing beach management, including
life guards, quality parks and gardens adjacent to the tourist
areas, lighting and similar services. This costs the Council approximately
£600,000 per annum after all the income is taken into account.
Also related to revenue spending is the impact winter
storms have upon a Council's financial standing. Coastal towns
tend to suffer more regular storm damage compared to inland areas
but these are not generally insurable. Whilst it is recognised
the Government operates the Bellwin scheme for aid, there is still
the need for the Council to fund significant sums from within
its own resources. In Torbay's case the Council has to meet the
first £0.280 million and then 15% of the balance which, when
the Council is only carrying £2.6 million in balances, can
rapidly diminish these balances and then result in criticism from
external auditors and inspectors for the low balance which can
then only be remedied at the expense of the local taxpayer.
To put these costs into perspective, an increase
in Council Tax raises approximately £0.5 million so it can
be seen that items (1) to (4) above, costs the residents of Torbay
at least a 1½% Council Tax increase.
Some of the more complex families who arrive in Torbay do
not arrive at the beginning of a school year and upon arrival
the children have to be placed in a suitable educational environment,
usually one of the local schools and due to the nature of the
housing often focused in one or two key wards. The impact of these
arrivals can be very disruptive to the existing children and there
are examples within Torbay schools where there is over 40% turnover
of pupils in one year group per annum. As the families get more
settled in the area and obtain permanent accommodation so the
children get moved again, increasing the problems they are already
facing and causing further educational disruption to the other
children in the class.
Transience in itself is not a bad thing, in fact it could
be encouraged to ensure a constantly changing and evolving society.
However in social terms it does put a strain on families and without
the support of extended families in the area or established neighbourhood
support, problems escalate often to the point where publicly funded
social care support is needed.
It is regrettable but a hard fact that many of the child social
care issues arise from families who are newly arrived in the area.
Torbay has witnessed some years where more than 50% of the children
taken into care in that year had arrived in the area in the previous
12 months.
A further pressure facing coastal local authorities such as
Torbay are socio-economic issues arising from the high number
of benefit claimants in the area. Paragraph 3 above referred to
the number of claimants in the area and this has a disproportionate
impact on the general economy. This core case load is then enhanced
by other families (who are often attracted by the spectre of a
"holiday by the seaside") and then remain. A recent
case in point arose when a family of 18 indicated they needed
to be re-housed and opted to move to Torbay as one of the family
had been on holiday there and thought it nice. This is not uncommon
and puts considerable strain on the housing resources in the area
where there is already a low %age of rented accommodation available
within the area. Torbay, in recent years. has been witnessing
a steady 3% per annum growth in housing and council tax claimants
Latest figures show that Torbay has the highest proportion of
working age population claiming Job Seekers Allowance (2.9% Torbay)
in the South West Region (1.6% South West), and a figure higher
than the national (2.6%).
(g) Impact of the Elderly
Most coastal towns prove to be a magnet for the elderly and
retired which has an impact on the services which the Council
needs to provide for. It is recognised that there is funding for
some of these services through the revenue support grant mechanism
for social care costs but what the system does not take account
of adequately is the pressures placed upon such services as Concessionary
bus fares, libraries etc.
19. Torbay Council, in common with all local authorities,
receives a significant element of its annual revenue funding from
the Government formula grant.
In previous years, when comparisons were possible using the
FSS system, it was clear that the overall funding being made available
to the Council was inadequate to meet the needs of Torbay and
as such to keep Council Tax rises down to a reasonable level.
As a consequence reductions in budgets were necessary in these
areas which are seen as discretionary in the Government's eyes,
such as parks, gardens and beaches but in the eyes of the residents
highly necessary and essential both in order to make Torbay an
attractive place to live and also to retain the tourist numbers
necessary to sustain the local industry.
All these items listed above are costs which are peculiar
to coastal towns but are not specifically recognised in the funding
formula. When the revenue support grant funding formulae are looked
at, the only funding source applicable to coastal towns which
may be interpreted as being applicable to meet these costs are
day and night visitor numbers.
Whilst this sum is recognised in the calculations for the
allocation of grant, it by no means compensates for the additional
costs that the Council has to find. Therefore it would be extremely
beneficial to coastal local authorities if some recognition could
be factored into the Relative Needs Formula calculation that reflected
these additional burdens.
TORBAY SOLUTION—SOCIAL
FACTORS
20. The Council is working in conjunction with both Registered
Social Landlords (RSL's) and the private sector to develop schemes
which both meet the needs of clients and ensure a pool of accommodation
is available for emergency lets but at the same time does not
commit the Council to significant costs. Although the Regional
Housing body is working with Torbay, it is very much constrained
by resources available regionally and the Council believes much
more could be achieved if specific funding were made available
to enhance and improve its current work with private sector partners.
21. An issue which affects a number of our schools is
the issue of transience, developed above, which is frequently
linked to families moving to the area for social reasons, but
without any firm social roots in the area. These families also
have an impact on the social care problems.
22. The Children's Services, an amalgamation of the Education
function and Children's Social care function as recommended in
the "Every Child Matters" paper, has a number of strategies
available to help both the schools in question and the families
concerned, where appropriate but once again resources are limited.
Any action taken by the Council to deal with schools issues obviously
has to be dealt with by using schools block money, thus denuding
the monies going to schools which, arguably, schools in other
areas will not have to address.
TORBAY APPROACH—ECONOMIC
REGENERATION
23. As a final component element, the industrial base
of Torbay is very weak and is highly dependant upon the tourism
and locally to Brixham, the fishing industries to provide employment
along with "public administration", education and health.
As referred to earlier the economic deprivation in Torbay is significant
with the authority recorded as the 94 worst in the country on
the Index of Multiple Deprivation. The Council will only be able
to improve this by both supporting the existing core sector strengths
such as tourism and by widening the industrial base of the area.
At present it is doing this by a number of approaches:
CAPITAL INVESTMENTS
24. The Council has embarked on major capital programmes
aimed at both supporting existing sectors and laying the foundations
for new ones. Thus a £22 million public/private initiative
in support of the tourism industry has recently been completed
in Torquay and a further £3.5 million phase is currently
under construction. This project has benefited from robust support
from external funders such as the SWRDA and GOSW. An even larger
capital programme aimed at the comprehensive regeneration of parts
of Brixham is currently at the planning stage
IMPROVED TRAINING
AND EDUCATIONAL
FACILITIES WITHIN
TORBAY
25. The Council is working closely with South Devon College,
which has recently moved to new, modern facilities, in developing
training opportunities for young people in order to widen their
skills base. It is planned to introduce business incubation facilities
into these college premises to ensure the transfer of the vocational
skills into the commercial arena as rapidly and effectively as
possible. In view of the capital and revenue pressures traditionally
experienced by such facilities, this is an area where funding
support would be exceptionally valuable. The Council has also
been identified as an authority which can receive £20 million
for the rebuild of a new school and it intends to use this money
to enable the new school to be a specialist business studies school,
once again broadening the skills base in the area.
ESTABLISHMENT OF
INDUSTRIAL STARTER
UNITS
26. The Council has, throughout the area, a number of
small industrial starter units which, in conjunction with the
RDA and Government Office, it is hoping to increase in number.
Whilst the funding for these units is very welcome, a very slow
and bureaucratic process has to be undertaken to release the funding
which is not conducive to the occasional need to move quickly
on some of these projects.
INTEGRATED TRAINING
SUPPORT
27. In addition to the above initiatives aimed at the
creation of more and better jobs and the facilities required for
these, Torbay Council is developing programmes to assist those
currently excluded from both employment and social opportunity.
This is being achieved by the integration and collaboration of
various community groups, Housing Services and several other Council
functions in order to offer a continuous pathway from the bottom
end of deprivation (ie homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction
etc) through to work experience, employment and ultimate economic
self-sufficiency.
However to make a long term significant improvement to the
economic base, the Council needs to make significant investment
in both infrastructure and facilities in conjunction with partners.
However this usually requires match funding and the Council does
not have the resources available and to utilise regional resources
usually means bidding against areas which are much more economically
vibrant and more able to attract new business to join existing
businesses. To this end the Council believes specific, earmarked
funding for large scale projects should be made available.
SUMMARY
In summary the Council, in putting its view forward in this
paper, has concluded that:
(a) The limitation placed upon the submission does not
allow the Council to fully develop the issues facing a coastal
town and would welcome the opportunity to further develop the
case in front of members of the committee.
(b) The existing regional structure is too large to be
able to deal with the specialist issues facing coastal towns.
(c) Transience, whilst not inherently bad, causes many
problems for any authority but it can be particularly pronounced
in coastal towns.
(d) Being a coastal town, additional costs are incurred
in the maintenance of the area which are not reflected in the
current revenue funding regime for local authorities.
(e) Significant capital investment is often required to
regenerate the coastal towns of developing new industries to replace
the declining tourist and marine related industries and also to
renew the Victorian infrastructure still in place in many of these
towns.
(f) Retention of the younger population is seen as crucial
to the sustained growth and regeneration of these towns and long-term
support is needed to enhance existing training facilities and
new businesses.
|
