The importance of small businesses in coastal towns has been put into sharp relief by Joe Robertson, the Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East. Robertson, Shadow Secretary of State for DCMS, argues that small businesses need breathing space and not to be suffocated by a combination of rising business costs and fresh red tape – citing the government’s unemployment reforms which he says threaten the flexibility that keeps seaside businesses afloat.
Joe Robertson MP, Conservative Member for Isle of Wight East and Shadow Secretary of State for DCMS, has set out a forceful critique of current government policy claiming that tourism and hospitality businesses are being undermined by a combination of labour market reforms, rising taxation and policy inconsistency.
In an Op Ed published on the Conservative Home platform Robertson frames coastal towns as microcosms of a wider economic problem arguing that many small businesses are “quietly wondering how much longer they can hold on”.
In terms of job creation, he notes: “Young people in my constituency – in places like Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor – rely on seasonal, flexible and part-time work precisely because it fits around study, training or caring responsibilities.
“Employers rely on that flexibility to match the rhythms of the visitor economy. But instead of supporting this essential adaptability, the Government has chosen to hobble it. Their unemployment rights reforms threaten the very flexibility that benefits workers and helps keep those businesses afloat.”
This, he suggests, compounds an already punishing tax environment for hospitality and tourism, which he claims got worse still in the Chancellor’s Budget last month. “Tourism and hospitality in the UK are more heavily taxed than in the rest of Europe” he states. “Faced with rising energy bills, costly supplies and jittery consumer confidence, small businesses needed breathing space. Instead, they were handed even higher taxes and fresh red tape. It is little wonder that 55 per cent of all jobs lost under this Government have come from retail, hospitality and leisure. These are not abstract statistics; they are real livelihoods, real families and real futures disrupted.”
Advancing a growth-led strategy, Robertson concluded: “Our seaside towns are full of potential. Their future depends not on nostalgia, but on practical support for the industries that sustain them. That requires a government willing to listen and capable of acting, not one improvising from crisis to crisis.
“Behind the fond memories of a holiday to the coast lies a difficult reality – our coastal economies are being slowly choked, not for lack of talent or ambition, but by a government that doesn’t understand how they work.
“A thriving tourism sector boosts the tax take for the Treasury without having to increase a single tax. By easing the burden on small businesses, the Government could stimulate growth and raise more revenue, not less.”
Originally published on Coinslot on January 4, 2026. Republished with permission.