Produced by the Key Cities Innovation Network – a collaboration with a dozen universities located in member cities – the report shows that following half a century of decline, Britain’s traditional coastal communities remain markedly disadvantaged compared to their inland counterparts in educational attainment, health outcomes and poverty, with inadequate infrastructure, underfunded schools, and heightened risks from floods and coastal erosion, with disparities still growing worse.
The research analysis was coordinated by the Centre for Coastal Communities at the University of Plymouth, with input from Southampton, Lincoln, Lancaster and Essex Universities. The report also presents direct input from local authorities as well as a range of perspectives from local stakeholders, from GPs to harbour masters, young ex-prisoners to art and nature activists, coordinated by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Key Cities.
The recommendations include:
- Engaging with coastal communities to explore innovation in co-designing, co-creating, and co-producing hyperlocal public services and place strategies for economic development and environmental protection.
- Coordinating policy and delivery across departmental responsibilities through a Cross-Departmental Task Force for coastal regions.
- In official statistics and research studies, adopting a definition of coastal communities that encompasses and does not exclude urban coastal areas – and including, where appropriate, those coastal communities which have been displaced to make way for development and removed from their historical proximity to and identification with the sea.
- Establishing long-term funding streams rather than relying on short-term, competitive grants to enable strategic development rather than piecemeal interventions.
- Reviewing the adverse impact of HM Treasury’s Green Book Land Value Uplift criteria with regard to coastal areas and other formulae used for funding allocation, to adequately reflect deprivation, disadvantage, and opportunity.
