Virus Towns will be hit hard by economic impact
ASTUDY has found that coastal towns in our region will be badly affected economically by coronavirus.
Towns like Burnham-on-Sea have high levels of its population (10 per cent) who work in the tourism and hospitality industry that was closed during much of the pandemic.
Coupled with high levels of household deprivation in towns like Burnham-on-Sea, at 65 per cent, this makes them vulnerable to the economic effects of the pandemic.
The study by the Bennett Institute for Public Policy in Cambridge counts household deprivation as containing at least one of the following: an unemployed/long-term sick member; no member with at least level 2 qualifications; a member with ‘bad or very bad’ health; no central heating or is overcrowded/shared.
The full impact of Covid-19 on our region is as yet hard to assess. Drawing upon ONS (2020) data on deaths from Covid-related causes between March and May 2020, the study has mapped out some of the towns worst affected by the virus.
Most towns in the South West had fewer per capita deaths from Covid-related causes than elsewhere in Britain.
However, the worst town in Britain for Covid-related deaths is Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire. Furthermore, the town with the highest absolute number of Covid deaths anywhere in Britain is Gloucester, with a reported 195 fatalities.
One of the most important features of the South West’s local economy is the importance to it of the hospitality and tourism industries. The study finds that five of the ten towns in Britain with the most employment in hospitality and tourism industries are found in the south west.
There are some towns in the South West, including Swanage and Newquay and Burnham-on-Sea, for which food, drink, accommodation and tour services make up a large percentage of their local employment. These industries are likely to be hit hard by the impacts of necessary social distancing during Covid-19, but not every town is as reliant as others on tourism.
A recent report by the Resolution Foundation (2020) showed that the South West had the highest rates of furloughed workers and of job losses since the virus began to spread in the whole of Britain.
The winding down of the furlough scheme will be a worrying prospect for many workers and businesses in the South West that have relied heavily on this support during the pandemic.
The study finds that towns in the South West are likely to be vulnerable to an economic downturn in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.
Five out of ten towns in Britain with the most employment in hospitality and tourism industries are found in the south west. It would be badly impacted by a summer with a significantly diminished number of tourists.
Only 15 per cent of towns in the South West are residential in character; meaning the vast majority of them provide a relatively large number of jobs for local residents that are at risk because they are in the hospitality and tourism industry.