Fresh life could be breathed into the South Coast as part of a strategy to boost the region's economy.

Seeda, the regional development agency for the South-East, today said it was developing a multi-million pound strategy to improve the fortunes of the area's coastal towns and cities.

Brighton and Hove, which attracts eight million visitors a year, has been identified as one of the region's three "diamonds for growth", the others being Southampton and Portsmouth.

Nine other towns, including Hastings, Bexhill, Eastbourne and Worthing, have been targeted in the strategy which aims to revitalise once buoyant seaside resorts.

Seeda's Coastal Strategy forms part of the wider Regional Economic Strategy (RES) published today which aims to create more than 110,000 jobs by 2016.

A summit of business leaders and government representatives will be held in Brighton next month to discuss the coastal strategy.

Many projects included in the wider RES are already under way.

The Learning and Skills Council is advertising internationally for development partners to build a £60 million further education college in Hastings.

Elsewhere a Seeda-funded study into the possibilities of creating new homes and employment sites at Shoreham Harbour is nearing completion.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said: "Across the country we are seeing the benefits of a regional approach to jobs and growth, backed by the RDAs (regional development agencies).

"The three regions of the North have come together in the Northern Way, there's Smart Growth in the Midlands, The Way Ahead in the South West and the Thames Gateway in the Greater South-East.

"Each of these initiatives seeks to maximise the impact of investment, skills and infrastructure, so we can narrow the economic gaps within and between regions.

"The sub-regional Coastal Strategy for the South-East is on a smaller scale, but it also means looking afresh at the economic contours of a region. It's about thinking east-west not just north-south.

"It's a new perspective on the potential of the South-East for jobs and growth."

Seeda chairman James Brathwaite said: "The potential of the coastal areas is huge, competitive advantage is yet to be fully developed but transformational investments are already under way.

"The Coastal Strategy sets a clear framework for investment in skills, infrastructure and quality of life, which we look forward to developing with all our partners, national, regional and local."

The advent of the package holiday in the Seventies dealt a huge economic blow to coastal towns and cities.

Many, such as Hastings which was one of the top three resorts in the country, have yet to fully recover.

Nine out of ten of the South-East's most deprived wards are in coastal towns or cities.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006