David Amess

Conservative Party | Southend West

Seaside town regeneration

Mr. David Amess (Southend, West): In my relatively brief, eight-minute speech, I intend to talk about the present and the future. For the second day running I intend to praise the Government. I shall return to type next week, but credit must be given where it is due. When debates began in this Chamber some years ago, I obtained a debate to which the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Janet Anderson), who was then Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting, replied. She was extremely helpful, and I know that the Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the hon. Member for Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), will be as helpful today as she was when she was a Minister at the Department of Health.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane). Except when he was knocking the Conservative Government, I agreed with much of what he said, especially about HMOs. Like him, I hope that the Queen's Speech will contain something to deal with the problem nationally.

We all know what the problem is with seaside resorts. It used to be expensive to travel abroad. The Brits have always moaned about the dodgy weather here, but is now inexpensive to travel abroad. This year's experience may alter things - we have had unbelievably good weather and people may return to British seaside resorts for their summer holidays - but we must deal with the present situation.

Southend-on-Sea, as one of the 43 premier seaside resorts, suffers the same difficulties that all hon. Members present for this debate are concerned about. I thank the Government for the support that they are giving Southend. We have been delighted by the number of Ministers who have visited Southend. It is pretty convenient, at 40 miles from here, but we are grateful none the less. I shall end my brief speech with a request for just a little more help.

We in Southend have 4.4 per cent. unemployment, which is more or less double the rate for Essex as a whole. In addition, just as things were starting to look good, the cliffs began to slide. That has been a major difficulty for Southend: where is the money to come from for restoration? We have a huge, very heavy bandstand where tea dances were traditionally held in the summer. It will be difficult to relocate that, but perhaps if I write to the Minister she will be able to come up with some ideas. Approximately 12.5 per cent. of Southend's work force is involved in tourism-related activities, so Southend is very heavily dependent on the tourism sector.

I am delighted that in August the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced a £29.6 million funding package. Southend, through public and private finance, was allocated, potentially at least, a decent share of what we were told would be £2 billion. We know that the Deputy Prime Minister intends to deliver 120,000 new homes, but we certainly cannot take them in Southend, because there is no land and areas that were empty have already been built on. We are commited to about 250 new houses. The Deputy Prime Minister also spoke about creating 18,000 jobs in the Thames gateway.

I am very grateful for Southend's £29.6 million. It will be spent on the regeneration of Pier hill, the 250 new houses, infrastructure development for improvements to the Rochford business park near Southend airport, and, most excitingly, development of the university campus. We are determined to make Southend a centre of learning. The various projects centre on South East Essex college. We are working with the university of Essex. We also have many tourism projects under way, and new hotels are to be built.

We can all argue about which is the best seaside resort in the United Kingdom, but I know it is Southend. We have the longest pier in the world at 1.3 million miles -

Mr. Andrew Turner: Million miles?

Mr. Amess: I am sorry, I meant 1.3 miles. That was a slight exaggeration, Pinocchio-style.

We have the finest ice cream in the United Kingdom - Rossi's. We have Adventure Island playground, which is a bit like what they have in America; we have the Sealife centre and the Kursaal, and the wonderful Cliffs pavilion. In addition, we have seven miles of shoreline. However, there are problems. The hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd talked about the money that his area had obtained from Europe. At the time when I secured a debate on the issue, one ward in my constituency, Westborough, was excluded from that funding. I hope that the Minister will help us to gain extra help for Westborough, which wants to become a village; I also hope for help for Westcliff community centre.

Mr. Andrew Turner: Does my hon. Friend accept that, although the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane) was fortunate in that parts of his constituency abutted an objective 1 area, which was relatively easy to extend, the Isle of Wight does not abut an objective 1 area - indeed, it does not abut anything - and the Government found it impossible to extend objective 1 status to it? My constituents feel that that rule is very unfair.

Mr. Amess: I agree with my hon. Friend and I hope to visit the Isle of Wight in October, when I shall see the difficulties at first hand.

In the 90 seconds that remain to me I want to ask the Minister kindly to consider what help can be given for the Palace hotel, which we hope will be used by our new university. We would like a regional college for vocational skills and will need extra money for that. We very much need help with our fisheries project. The hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) and I gave evidence at the London gateway inquiry; I can foresee terrible difficulties in terms of the effect on the Thames estuary if that huge project goes ahead.

Finally, I am concerned about Sir Michael Lyons' public sector relocation project, which the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd mentioned. Southend depends on Her Majesty's Customs and Excise being located there. If we were to lose that, it would have a devastating effect on the town. I thank the Government for what they have done so far, and look forward to the help that they will be able to give us in future.