With the pollsters and commentators all expecting something of a tight result in the 2015 battleground seats, the marginals we need to defend and those we need to win become even more important to our campaign.

In contrast to the days of Mondeo man or Worcester woman, the common factor in many of Labour’s battleground seats today is the view: a sea view – a third of the targets are coastal.

The list, often with a mix of town and country as their hinterland, are both seats we need to hold and those that are our target seats. They included the places that robbed David Cameron of his majority – Wirral South, Rhyl (Vale of Clwyd), Plymouth Moor, both Southampton seats and Great Grimsby – and those needed to make Ed Miliband prime minister – Morecambe, the four seats of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, the three seats of Hove and of Brighton, Hastings and Rye, Waveney, Great Yarmouth and Redcar. Many of these seats are also the places that took us to our majorities of 1997, 2001 and 2005.

In addition to the postcard views, coastal constituencies have key attributes in common. They are, by definition, at the end of the line, even if they have lost the decent rail connections that they once had; they have a smaller economy by dint of their seaside aspect, and that in turn can mean they suffer from affordability issues, in housing, in transport, in energy and in food.

Many of the people have made a big choice about where they live. In making or sticking with that bigger choice of a coastal location, whether that is for family, work or other reasons, there is a trade-off that Labour needs to understand. That trade-off means the loss of choices about which school your child can attend, to reduced access to health care, and a different more limited local economy in which to work, rest and play.

The unique nature of this means Labour has to have an offer that speaks to the magnitude of these challenges. There will be no great appetite for state handouts but equally central government cannot be absent in the future of these places. This is an ideal frame for Labour to show a modern, strategic, social democratic statecraft. One that delivers affordable public services but stays focused on the reforms that will make seaside economies work for working people.

Labour should, therefore, prioritise the devolution of power to the coast, to ensure there is local control of skills, transport, connectivity and investment, akin the offer we promise Manchester and other big cities. An offer worth more than the sum of its parts will be about strengthening the tourism offer, supporting diversification to broaden these coastal economies, and connectivity improvements that ensures coastal communities can access those products and services than many in our cities take for granted.

Ed Miliband’s vision is bold: an economy that works for working people. The tide comes in and out on the detail but with a full programme with coastal Britain in mind would amount to a lifeline to many of those places at the end of the train line.

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Hywel Lloyd is a founder member of Labour: Coast & Country

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Photo: Andrew