In this blog, Patrick Hurley MP urges the Labour government to fulfil its promise of a decade of national renewal, by marrying up a positive approach to seaside heritage with a modern approach to commerce and kick-starting flagging town economies.
My Southport constituency is similar to many coastal towns in the UK.
It’s got a seasonal economy, its town centre has seen better days, and the relatively poor transport links that once made it feel like a slightly exotic trip out for the middle classes of Liverpool and Manchester now hinder its aspirations to benefit from the growth of those cities as regional economic powerhouses. What were once assets are now liabilities. What was once symbolic of our country’s aspiration is now symbolic of its recent and relative decline.
Most symbolic of all of my town’s current economic predicament is the closure of its seaside pier in 2022 for safety reasons. A lack of sufficient maintenance since the pier was originally built in the 1850s and 1860s, a series of fires in 1897, 1933 and 1959, a storm in 1989, along with poor repairs on the pier, most recently in 2000, have all contributed to a turbulent history for the pier. Its current closure is merely the latest in a long line of problems, albeit possibly the most expensive, with a £15m price tag for repair plus an annualised maintenance bill.
There are 62 seaside piers in Great Britain, according to data from the National Piers Society. Many of them – as in Southport – are in a bad structural condition, having been poorly maintained over many decades, and also due to the fact that – by their very nature – piers are risky structures that face specific challenges around fires, storms, tidal surges and natural erosion.
There is no common approach to ownership of the country’s seaside piers. Some are in Local Authority hands, some are privately-owned, and some are run by non-profit groups, often in collaboration with external partners. What is common to almost all, though, is that their financial sustainability is a struggle, and that attempts at commercialisation have a patchy record.
My own town’s pier is in local authority hands, having been taken into public ownership many decades ago. But in the post-austerity era, when council budgets have been slashed and all their services are run on a shoestring, it’s highly unlikely that any local authority member would vote to fund the renovation of a seaside pier over more fundamental concerns such as children’s services or adult social care. And asking central government to ringfence funding through councils specifically for pier renovation is also highly unlikely to be received positively.
I propose a solution to these problems of maintenance, commercialisation, and sustainability. Piers are well-loved structures in their towns, and are undeniably tourist attractions that have an economic multiplier effect on their localities’ prospects. But they would benefit from a common approach to deal with all these common problems.
Labour has come into government earlier this year in times of severe economic hardship, but also with a mission-led approach to government that takes inspiration from the party’s past and the traditions of Victorian-era partnerships between private enterprise and innovative government. In line with this approach, I propose a new national body to take all our existing piers into common, non-profit ownership; I’m agnostic as to whether this should be run from Whitehall through government, or on a model based on the National Trust or a similar organisation.
But by taking all our piers into common ownership with a commercial mindset, whatever the model chosen, issues around maintenance could benefit from economies of scale, permanent supply chains could be built up to deal with annualised maintenance issues, best practice could more easily be shared between towns, and sustainable business models could be implemented through a common approach to commercialisation. As inspiration for this approach, the National Trust is funded by donations, membership fees and trading income – a non-profit remit for a national organisation does not necessitate a non-commercial approach. On the contrary, a commercial approach from a pier authority such as I propose would be necessary for long-term financial sustainability.
State funding will always have a part to play in maintenance of our Victorian heritage, as not every pier will be able to maintain financial sustainability unaided, but hand-in-hand with that goes state accountability and direction. By ensuring that a national body has responsibility for refurbishment and maintenance of these structures, rather than a patchwork quilt of councils, community groups and private owners, we could ensure that funding-of-last-resort can be justified from the public purse.
Coastal communities have had more than their fair share of economic woe over the past decades, and if Labour’s promise of a decade of national renewal is to be fulfilled adequately for these areas, what better way to symbolise our intent than to marry up a positive approach to seaside heritage with a modern approach to commerce and kick-starting our flagging town economies. Let’s take our piers into common ownership, and make sure that our seaside towns’ best days lie ahead of them.
