Coastal issues and the Select Committee Inquiry into coastal towns

Why have a Select Committee Inquiry into coastal towns?

Following prolonged and concerted pressure from MPs and others, the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) decided to hold an SCI, with the brief ‘to examine current government policy affecting English coastal towns’.

Select Committees are appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of government departments and their associated bodies. In the case of the Department for Communities and Local Government (formerly the ODPM) Select Committee, their inquiries range from the overarching to the specific: local government finance, the central/local government power balance, at the top; through planning, housing and waste management; down to the provision of public toilets at the bottom.

During 2006, the inquiry into coastal towns called for evidence and received 66 written submissions on coastal issues from local authorities and coastal organisations, visited several resorts, and invited experts to a number of oral evidence sessions at Westminster. This established a formidable body of evidence on the circumstances of English coastal towns in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

The committee published its findings in March 2007, highlighting specific issues and making the following recommendations for government action.²