Growing coastal poverty laid bare

Coastal communities are among the most deprived areas in Britain, according to a report on the growing economic disparities between different parts of the country.

The study, conducted by the Social Market Foundation and commissioned by the BBC, found coastal communities are among the worst off for earnings, employment, health and education.

Half of the ten UK local authorities with the highest unemployment rates for the first three months of the year - Hartlepool, North Ayrshire, Torridge, Hastings, South Tyneside and Sunderland - were on the coast.

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Of the 98 local authorities with a coastline, 85 per cent had pay levels below the UK average in 2016, with employees in seaside communities paid about £3,600 less than the national average.

Ten of the 20 local authorities in England and Wales with the highest proportion of people in poor health were coastal, while the two authorities with the lowest proportion of over-16-year-olds who had degrees or higher apprenticeships were both by the sea.

The report's author, Social Market Foundation chief economist Scott Corfe, said a lack of infrastructure and local job opportunities was increasing levels of deprivation.

"Many coastal communities are poorly connected to major employment centres in the UK, which compounds the difficulties faced by residents in these areas," he said. This means that "not only do they lack local job opportunities, but travelling elsewhere for work is also relatively difficult".

Corfe also warned that some areas, particularly in the South East, "are pockets of significant deprivation surrounded by affluence - meaning their problems are often overlooked by policymakers".

The fact that coastal areas, many of which voted overwhelmingly for Brexit, are poorer and sicker than the rest of the country "isn't news", says James Kirkup in the Daily Telegraph. "What is news is the fact that the gap is getting bigger. Britain's coastal communities are falling further behind."

In 1997, economic output in coastal areas was 23 per cent lower than non-coastal ones. By 2015, that gap was 26 percentage points.

Despite the government recently announcing £40m in funding to help coastal areas by boosting employment and encouraging tourism, one problem indentified by the report is that there is currently no official definition of a coastal community.

The fact that these areas and the people who live in them, who by and large hail from the white working class, have no unique status in official planning or analysis "means the system finds them easy to ignore", says Kirkup.