Comment

Seaside towns: creating year-round opportunities for all

As the new school term is underway and the summer tans start to fade, it is timely to reflect on what faces our seaside towns after the tourists leave.

Being an island, the UK is fortunate to have a network of seaside towns dotted along our coastline, with nowhere in the UK more than 70 miles from the coast. COVID-19 did have a silver lining for some of these towns. With foreign travel restricted during 2020 and 2021, holidaymakers looked within the UK and staycations brought significant new travellers exploring what the coast had to offer. Record temperatures in July and continued popularity of UK staycations appears to have buoyed visitor levels over the summer of 2022. Despite these positives, seaside towns now face the tricky “shoulder” months going into the autumn and winter, coupled with diminishing consumer spending power and rising costs of doing business – the perfect storm.

Surviving these tricky off season periods has long been something that seaside towns have grappled with. Some have responded, or are in the process of doing so, by investing in all weather and year-round attractions to entice visitors back out of season. This is not the only way, however, to build resilience.

It is apparent through recent funding programmes, notably Town Deals and Levelling Up, that coastal and seaside towns are looking to diversify their economic and business bases and to provide a greater choice of opportunities for year-round residents. They are targeting creative, digital and other sectors which offer the potential for diversification and resilience.

Providing “opportunities for all” is an important consideration with over 5.3 million people residing in coastal towns in England and Wales^[1].

The pandemic has also weakened the traditional ties between home and workplace and, coupled with the move out of cities to attractive coastal areas, this potentially provides another source of economic opportunity. New economically active residents bring with them the opportunity to provide space for entrepreneurs to offer flexible or “third space” workspace for home workers.

Diversification needs to be authentic and locally owned

Seaside towns were designed and built to serve visitors, but they have been in a process of gradual reinvention for almost half a century. As more attempt to diversify their economic bases it is important to target limited resources upon those sectors and activities which are authentic to the place and its’ economy – those with the best chances of growing and succeeding.

From our experiences of recently working with seaside towns, from Southport in the North West to Bournemouth in the South East of England, we have observed that those places making the greatest strides towards creating opportunities for all have some things in common. They:

1. Invest time in understanding the business sector make up of their economies – looking beyond dominant leisure and hospitality businesses
2. Spot nascent growth sectors and emerging business clusters
3. Foster business networks and leverage the power of other important stakeholders such as further and higher education institutions, as well as skills and training providers
4. Engage local residents to understand their needs and aspirations for employment opportunities where they live
5. Actively seek out the views of young people entering the labour force and other traditionally seldom heard groups to understand their needs, hopes and aspirations
6. Use their own property assets and target public funding to overcome market barriers and failures in the provision of business premises and environments
7. Champion their places as successful and attractive to a range of business interests

Working in this way, the most progressive places are nurturing emerging sectors and providing opportunities for all, no matter what the season.

Look out for our next comment which looks at coastal communities hosting free ports and the opportunities and challenges arising.

For a discussion about the way in which we are supporting seaside towns and working with community and business stakeholders please get in touch with Cat White, Andrea Kellegher or Richard Laming.

29 September 2022

[1] Coastal towns in England and Wales: October 2020