Severe social breakdown on the coast as vulnerable pushed into low quality housing

Britain’s seaside towns are suffering social breakdown and are becoming dumping grounds for vulnerable people, new research has revealed.

The Centre for Social Justice’s report – ‘Turning the Tide’ – uncovered a problem with poor quality and unsuitable housing, with houses in multiple occupation (HMO) rampant on the coast.

With profits declining, areas that “once attracted millions of holiday-makers” have seen former hotels and guesthouses sold to private landlords and converted into HMOs – a situation the report says has pulled in people on very low incomes and reliant on welfare. The think tank’s report shows that of the 20 neighbourhoods across the UK with the highest levels of working-age people on out-of-work benefits, seven are in coastal towns, with the yearly benefits bill for seaside areas coming in at nearly £2 billion.

And the CSJ heard that some councils in high cost areas of the country are taking advantage of the cheap accommodation available in seaside towns and using them as a dumping ground for vulnerable people, such as children in care.

Focusing on five towns – Rhyl in North Wales, Margate, Clacton-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth and Blackpool – the report found that key measures of poverty, such as school failure, teenage pregnancy, addiction, lone parenting and worklessness are as severe at the seaside as deprived inner-city areas.

The report concludes that “poverty is attracting poverty” at the coast, and it praises attempts by charities and local councils to tackle the problem. However, it calls for far greater efforts to “recapture the prosperity that was once the hallmark of the seaside resort”.

Christian Guy, CSJ director, said: “Living standards in some of the UK’s best known coastal towns have declined beyond recognition and locals are now bearing the brunt of severe levels of social breakdown.

24Dash