A steady stream of day-trippers leave the railway station and head down to the seafront. Some shoppers and dawdlers detour through the picturesque cobbled streets of The Lanes. Others walk past the extraordinary Royal Pavilion, with its ornate domes and minarets, before reaching Brighton’s beach.
They’ll spend the next few hours sunbathing, swimming, eating ice cream or maybe riding a rollercoaster on the pier – just like in seaside resorts across the country this summer. This, however, is not the reality for many people who live in coastal communities. Even in affluent Brighton, the deprivation is not far away.
Take the Whitehawk estate, where six small areas are among the 7% most deprived in England (2019 figures). Such communities are beset by poor health, inequality and a lack of opportunities. Yet they barely featured in the Labour government’s winning manifesto .
A recent study led by the University of Manchester identified high rates of “deaths of despair” in England’s coastal areas and northern regions in general, caused by drugs, alcohol and suicide. It is a cruel irony that Blackpool, well-known for its nights out and Pleasure Beach, has the highest rate of such deaths in England. Coastal communities experience “some of the worst health outcomes”, according to a 2021 report by Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer.
This includes lower life expectancy, lower healthy life expectancy and high rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Thes.