‘Doesn’t go to fundamentals’: autumn statement misses mark in Southport

Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Southport pier has stretched into the Irish sea since the Victorian era, surviving fires, Nazi warplanes and more than 160 years of daytrippers treading its sandy boards.

Today it stands as a monument of decline. The Grade II-listed structure, the second-longest pier in Britain, has been closed for almost a year after safety surveys found it “rotting from within”.

The sad state of this local treasure has caused despair from the promenade to the House of Commons, where the town’s Conservative MP, Damien Moore, raised concern over the “huge” impact on Southport’s hospitality industry during prime minister’s questions earlier this year.

“The pier is definitely a draw to bring people in,” said Matt Gregson, the co-owner of the Pavilion cafe, bar and bistro on Lord Street boulevard. “So Southport is missing out because it’s closed.”

Gregson, 49, and his business partner, Rosie Blackburn, 41, watched the chancellor’s autumn statement in the hope of a boost before what they expect to be a difficult winter. Despite a handful of hospitality-friendly announcements – such as the freeze on alcohol duty and an extension to the business rates discount – the news did not leave them overjoyed.

“Our energy costs are through the roof. Some weeks we’re just managing to wash our face and that’s about it,” said Gregson.

The pair opened a pizza restaurant, called Crave, in July, and the oven alone costs £100 a day to run, taking the company’s overall electricity bill to about £2,000 a month. The increase in the “national living wage” would add to the pressure, they said.

“I think we will just have to increase prices,” said Blackburn. “We’re not drowning because we’re still here and we can manage, but it’s a lot harder now than before Covid.”

Rosie Blackburn and Matt Gregson, cafe owners, said their energy costs were ‘through the roof’ and business had been ‘a lot harder’ since Covid. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Like many seaside towns, Southport is older than large parts of Britain. Young people with higher school grades tend to find work or study elsewhere. Heading the other way are retirees, who move to the coast for the quiet life.

Tourism is at the heart of the town’s economy, bringing in about £600m a year and supporting about 6,000 jobs. Yet visitor numbers remain lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Despite the grumbling over the closure of the pier – many do not expect it to open before next summer, given the council must find at least £13m for repairs – investment is coming into Southport. A 1,500-capacity events centre is being built on the promenade, in part with money from one of the government’s levelling-up funds, and two Grade II-listed former theatres – the Garrick and the Grand – are being transformed into hotels with upmarket dining.

Those investments made Jeremy Hunt’s announcements all the more disappointing for Peter Haden, chief executive of Fletchers solicitors, Southport’s biggest private sector employer.

“The measures are all sort of fine but it doesn’t go to the fundamentals. What we’re looking for as a business and particularly for Southport is stability and the ability to plan and invest,” he said.

Haden said the town’s potential was being held back by the government’s abandonment of key pledges, such as HS2: “A reduction in national insurance is helpful on the margins but in comparison to the turmoil of the last year, the going backwards and forwards on investment in infrastructure and transport, it doesn’t make a difference.”

Karen Potter, an estate agent, said her company’s overall spending had increased by 20% this year. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Karen Potter, the owner of an estate agents in Southport, said the local property market was performing strongly – her 10-year-old company has recorded two months of record transactions since January – but the Treasury was making life difficult for small businesses.

“It’s positive news about national insurance cuts and workplace pensions,” she said. “But our overall spending has increased by 20% this year – a lot of that is salaries. Insurances have increased astronomically this year [as well as] regulations we have to adhere to. Everything has just hammered away at small businesses.”

Dave Cartwright, 64, and his wife, Jackie, 65, said they would benefit from the increase in the pension thanks to the triple lock, but didn’t believe such yearly increases were sustainable.

Both Conservative voters, the Cartwrights said they would struggle to vote for the party again – partly due to the Partygate scandal and the economic turmoil caused by Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership. “We’re both working-class people. But with lockdown and the parties they had – that’s just terrible: ‘Let those people die alone and we will have a party.’”

Anthony Mitchell, owner of a wine bar, called the Conservatives ‘an absolute shambles of a party’. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

At Baileys wine bar, a co-owner, Anthony Mitchell, said he too had voted Conservative at the last election but wouldn’t do so at next year’s expected general election, despite the measures announced on Wednesday aimed at wooing voters: “They’re an absolute shambles of a party. Everything over the last 12 months and the pandemic.”

Hunt’s statement came a day after Mitchell’s co-owner at the bar, Kath Moss, had met their accountant “figuring out if we could carry on”. This month the bar, charging a budget £4 a pint, was making a loss and they hoped to scrape by until next summer. “That’s if we’re still here,” she said.