PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Economic Growth: Coastal Communities - 29 January 2026 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

The Government are committed to supporting growth in coastal areas such as Bournemouth West. The partnership between Business Growth Dorset and the new business growth service makes it easier for firms to access tailored support. The Department for Business and Trade is also strengthening the conditions for investment and helping high-value sectors such as advanced engineering, aerospace and digital industries to expand. Through national programmes supporting investment, exports and innovation, alongside Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council’s economic strategy, we will ensure that Bournemouth’s businesses benefit fully from UK-wide measures to boost economic growth.

I thank the Minister for that answer. Bournemouth and Poole rightly have reputations as premier tourism and leisure destinations, but less well known is our leadership in the digital and creative industries. Two businesses in my constituency, Content Ignite and Iplicit, have been ranked in the top 50 fastest- growing tech businesses in Britain by The Sunday Times. Could the Minister please expand on how this Government are supporting fast-growing high-value industries in coastal towns such as mine?

I am due to come to my hon. Friend’s constituency in little over a month—I do like to be beside the seaside. We often think of constituencies like hers as tourism and hospitality hotspots, but, as she said, they can also be a hive for the creative industries, of which she is such a champion. Through the £380 million creative industries sector plan, we are boosting innovation, skills and access to finance nationwide, which is helping firms, including in her constituency. She will know that businesses in her area also benefit from such a strong talent pipeline coming from her area’s great universities, and I look forward to working with her and learning more when I visit soon.

I thank the Minister for his positive, constructive and helpful answers. For Ards and North Down council in my constituency, the thrust of its economic growth strategy is tourism, and there have been many dividends from that. It is important that, right across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we have the chance to advance and do better. The Minister might not have had the opportunity to talk to the local Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Gordon Lyons, on this issue, but I hope that he will do so, and thereby we can all gain from his knowledge of what we are doing back home.

I had a fantastic family holiday in Northern Ireland, driven by my son’s obsession with the Titanic—I had a very moving visit there. I have met my opposite number with responsibility for small businesses in Northern Ireland, and I am happy to have the discussion that the hon. Member suggests.