Britain’s seaside resorts contributed a little noticed but important part of the New Labour coalition in 1997, with once rock-solid Tory resorts like Blackpool, Scarborough, Thanet South, Hove and Hastings and Rye all turning red for the first time.

A number of seaside seats – Falmouth, Scarborough and Whitby, Harwich and Preseli Pembrokeshire – were among the 47 Labour losses in the 2005 election, but there are still about 35 Labour MPs who represent seaside towns in England, Scotland and Wales. These seaside resorts will be key battlegrounds at the next election, and Labour will need to hold on to most of them to retain their 66-seat majority. The question is, can Labour stop a blue tide coming in?

Tourism has risen higher up the political agenda than ever before. Britain’s tourism industry is worth £74bn a year and is now Britain’s third largest industry, employing 2.1 million people. This represents over seven per cent of all the people employed in the UK, many more than the number involved in agriculture and farming, or motor manufacturing.

Trips to the seaside are worth £6bn, although this accounts for little more than one third of holiday expenditure, a fall of over 50 per cent since 1980. The decline in Britons spending their main holiday, or indeed any holiday, at the seaside is one factor that has led to a crisis affecting many British seaside resorts. Many resorts are in urgent need of the lifeboat.

In Scarborough last week, the parliamentary Communities and Local Government Committee published a report, Coastal Towns. The committee argues that the government has no specific policy or initiatives for coastal towns, based upon the premise that coastal towns are too diverse to warrant such an approach.

In the report, the committee states, ‘Our analysis has identified a number of common characteristics shared by many coastal towns. These include: their physical isolation, deprivation levels, the inward migration of older people, the high levels of transience, the outward migration of young people, poor quality housing and the nature of the coastal economy. Excluding their physical location, none of these characteristics are unique to coastal towns. The combination of these characteristics, however, with the environmental challenges that coastal towns face, does lead to a conclusion that they are in need of focused, specific government attention.’

Realising that their constituencies share many similar problems, Gordon Marsden, the MP for Blackpool South and president of the British Resorts Association, created the Labour Seaside Group of MPs. He has compared the plight of our seaside towns to that of Britain in the post-Suez era – they have lost an empire and not yet found a role.

As in so many areas of industry, the British were the first to develop mass tourism at the seaside, but a lack of investment and foresight has left an unfashionable and uneconomic product. Behind the facade of genteel Victorian buildings, Britain’s seaside resorts face economic, social and environmental pressures which are on a par with some of the worst inner city areas in the country.

When coalmines or steel works closed down the effects were immediate and obvious, as was the damage to local economies. Mass job losses still have a tendency to hit the headlines in a way that gradual decline and economic contraction don’t. The slow decline of our seaside resorts has been further masked by their proximity to more affluent areas, which has prevented them from receiving grants and other financial support from either central government or the European Union.

The majority of seaside resorts are essentially one-industry towns, relying on tourism, and competing against an ever-growing and better-priced alternative. They are usually, by definition, in peripheral locations with what have been described as ‘180-degree economies’. Tourism is also seasonal and is notorious for providing low-paid, low-skilled and low-status jobs. Of the businesses that do survive, many are national chains of pubs, hotels and shops rather than independent local entrepreneurs. Local tourist spending is thus hardly guaranteed to remain in the local economy.

Many seaside towns have relatively large dependent populations who create additional demands on health and social services. Former holiday accommodation has frequently been converted into DSS housing and, more recently, hostels for refugees and asylum seekers. Unemployment in seaside resorts is often comparable to inner city areas, reaching, for example, over 15 per cent in Blackpool in the winter months.

Environmental problems affecting seaside towns can include swimming in sewage, not a good selling point for a seaside resort. Neither is the aesthetic appeal of seaside towns aided by piers that look like shipwrecks and an urban landscape that resembles a dilapidated Costa Del Sol without the sunshine. Economic decline has too often led to a crumbling local infrastructure, part of a vicious circle that makes these towns even less desirable places to visit.

The Conservatives have some suggestions. They want to cut ‘red tape’ and regulation which, they argue, harms local businesses. They also propose to place asylum seekers in reception centres, acting against ‘troublesome travellers’, taking back British fishing rights for the rest of the EU, either through negotiation or unilaterally, and by improving transport links to coastal towns, increasing the number of parking spaces and cutting fuel taxes. They also want to abolish regional development agencies and to transfer funding and resources to local councils.

This should represent a golden opportunity for the Labour party. Tourism is the most New Labour of industries – service-oriented and dependent to a greater or lesser extent on image – and many policies close to Labour’s heart, such as the minimum wage, the working time directive and improved education and training, are more relevant to the tourism industry than almost any other.

Marsden argues that Britain’s seaside towns built their prosperity through enlightened municipal government working with dynamic local entrepreneurs. Public/private sector partnerships were obviously popular in the nineteenth century and are certainly relevant in the new millennium. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport is keen to encourage such partnerships.

The New Deal, the minimum wage, the signing of the social chapter, the emphasis on education and vocational training together with a drive towards quality and standards in the hotels and catering industry should offer possibilities of more than just another McJob. Neither should it be forgotten that it was this Labour government that introduced the right to paid holiday for the first time.

Diversification is absolutely crucial for seaside resorts that can no longer rely on the traditional bucket and spade holidays. Although tourism can often be the catalyst for regeneration, it is not the only, or even prime, solution in every instance. The Illuminations in Blackpool have been extending the season for over 70 years. Bournemouth and Brighton are excellent examples of seaside towns that have successfully repositioned themselves as venues for conferences, exhibitions and trade fairs. There are also opportunities to develop as heritage centres, bases to visit nearby attractions or any other number of niche markets, including possible casino-oriented resorts.

The European Union, too, has a role to play in ameliorating the problems facing our seaside towns. A number of resorts are located within the EU’s Objective One and Two, and now Objective Three areas, and are benefiting from Euopean funding. The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund provides a significant proportion of funding for a number of major resorts, including Blackpool, Brighton & Hove, Great Yarmouth and Hastings – these resort authorities have been awarded some £30m.

In resorts across the UK, the Labour government has an excellent, and possibly final, opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of well thought-out social and economic policies and positive engagement with the EU. If it can do this, it may save its majority at the next general election. And, you never know, Blackpool may suddenly seem like a good choice of conference venue once again.