Coastal Communities (Health) Bill

Sadik Al-Hassan Excerpts

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sadik Al-Hassan (North Somerset) (Lab)]

In my constituency, our coastal towns of Clevedon and Portishead are places of real character, with Clevedon’s grade I listed pier, Portishead’s maritime and dock heritage, and communities with a fierce sense of pride and belonging. As many Members of the House know, before I was elected I worked as a community pharmacist for nearly 20 years across the south-west. Behind the pharmacy counter I saw the health inequalities between coastal and inland communities first hand. The Chief Medical Officer’s report exemplifies that disparity.

Five years ago, Chris Whitty warned that if health problems in coastal communities were not tackled vigorously and systematically, we would face

“a long tail of preventable ill health.”

It is a problem that will only get worse as populations age. That warning matters in North Somerset. Today, 11% of our population is over 75, but by 2043 that will rise to 14%. The 2021 census showed that people in coastal areas are more likely to report bad or very bad health. In Clevedon, 6.7% of people said that their day-to-day activities were limited a lot by their health, and the figure was 5.2% in Portishead.

As the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) mentioned, coastal communities are harder to recruit in when it comes to health. My first-hand experience of trying to recruit pharmacists and health care professionals, such as pharmacy technicians and dispensers, across coastal communities in the south-west has shown me that it is problematic in those areas to get the healthcare professionals we need. That is also true of GP surgeries. The south-west has the highest community pharmacy vacancy rate at 14%, and workforce planning needs to reflect the ageing population in coastal communities, which will fuel the demand for healthcare.

I hate to agree with the hon. Member one more time, but I believe the Government need to have a Minister specifically responsible for coastal communities, to push a cross-Government and cross-Department strategy to try to bring those inequalities in coastal communities closer to those of their inland neighbours.

Transport and access to health hubs in coastal communities are more difficult, and that can be problematic not just for attending a GP appointment or getting to a pharmacy, but for getting to work for those working in a healthcare establishment. Pharmacy tends to map towards deprivation and health inequalities in this country, with higher numbers of pharmacies located where inequalities are greatest, and that links to coastal communities and rural areas. When pharmacy is impacted by funding cuts and closures, that tends to hit those communities worse, such as with the closure of the Jhoots pharmacies in Portishead. We lost two of the three pharmacies in that area, meaning that one pharmacy was left to serve a population of around 25,000. Thankfully, with the help of Magna Pharmacy, we have managed to reopen those two pharmacies, but closures make coastal communities particularly vulnerable due to the health inequalities.

[Pam Cox]

I have put on the record my support for particular initiatives around coastal communities. Clause 4 of the Health Bill gives the Secretary of State a duty to have regard to reduce inequalities in access to health services for people in England. Does my hon. Friend agree that Ministers should be mindful of the needs of coastal communities when looking at that clause?

[Sadik Al-Hassan]

I agree with my hon. Friend’s wise intervention. As I have said, I would go further and put in place a Minister with a responsibility for coastal communities, so great are the health inequalities. They require such a focus.

The 2021 report by Chris Whitty made several recommendations, and I urge the Government to take them forward. We need a cross-Government strategy for coastal health. We must ensure there are sufficient healthcare staff in coastal areas as recruitment levels are often lower than the national average, which, as I say, I have personal experience of.

Finally, we must undertake better research. Coastal communities have been chronically understudied in public health research, and that gap leads to worse inequalities. An ageing population adds to pressures on local services, from getting appointments at GP surgeries to access to Pharmacy First at community pharmacies.

I welcome the hon. Member for North Norfolk raising this issue. Someone’s postcode should never dictate their health outcomes, and I will continue to champion the health of North Somerset’s coastal communities today and for the years ahead.