Portsmouth MP demands future PM candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to stop the decline of coastal communities

Dunsbury Park is now a live tax site. Part of the Portsmouth Gateway Cluster, Dunsbury Park is a key location within the Solent Freeport.

Tax incentives include 100% business rate relief for 5 years, enhanced capital allowances, leasehold stamp duty tax reliefs and 3 years employers NI relief. — Dunsbury Park is now a live tax site. Part of the Portsmouth Gateway Cluster, Dunsbury Park is a key location within the Solent Freeport. Tax incentives include 100% business rate relief for 5 years, enhanced capital allowances, leasehold stamp duty tax reliefs and 3 years employers NI relief.

A PORTSMOUTH MP has urged both Tory candidates vying to become the new prime minister to arrest the decline of coastal communities.

Former leadership contender and Portsmouth North MP, Penny Mordaunt, has joined a group of 13 Tory politicians who have written to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to urge whoever wins the Tory leadership contest to come up with a plan to boost the coastal economy.

They said: ‘There are serious challenges facing the country – and whilst the UK coastline continues to attract millions of visitors this summer, for the people living there it can be a very different story.

‘Our coastal communities have been amongst the hardest hit by the pandemic and will be hit further by the rising cost of living. Without urgent intervention they stand to fall even further behind.’

A 2021 Survation poll of 1,000 young people in coastal communities found 49 per cent planned to move away, with lack of jobs the overwhelming reason.

The MPs called for freeport benefits to be extended to the whole of the UK coastline, which, among other things, would bring tax reliefs, regeneration and trade and investment support.

Featuring the first approved tax site in the Solent Freeport area at Dunsbury Park, Portsmouth is a key location to establishing full ‘freeport status’.

City leaders have claimed the new status will be worth billions to the UK economy and will encourage the growth of new businesses.

They MPs added: ‘Growing industry in coastal communities is vital to turn the tide. Industry roles, such as those in maritime, pay £9,000 more than the national average per year, and for every £1 generated by the sector, a total £2.71 is generated across the UK economy.’

Chief executive Ben Murray said: ‘The contest deciding Britain’s next prime minister is in its final days, but we have yet to see a clear plan for growth in our coastal communities from either candidate.

‘Not for the first time, the people living in these communities could be forgiven for feeling forgotten.

‘We have a real opportunity to put coastal areas at the heart of Britain’s green growth. But this will require an economic plan that treats these areas as places of business and trade, not just bucket and spade.’