Keating, Avril; Whewall, Sam; (2025) Not settling for the lacklustre life? The role of local employment opportunities in youth mobility aspirations in coastal towns in England. Presented at: Presentation at the seminar series organised by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, London, UK.

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Abstract

Over the past 10+ years, coastal towns have attracted considerable attention in discussions about place-based inequalities (CMO, 2021; HoL, 2019; Ofsted, 2011). Once thriving centres of commerce and culture, many coastal towns in England are now more likely to be associated with deprivation and economic decline. Many face numerous and intersecting challenges, including high levels of unemployment and deprivation; low levels of educational qualifications, and poor health outcomes. High levels of youth out-migration and ‘brain drain’ are also common, with many young people leaving to pursue educational and employment opportunities that are not available in their communities. In this context, it would seem obvious to focus on job creation as a means of addressing these issues. In this presentation, however, we will argue that simply creating good job opportunities is not sufficient to kick start community regeneration or retain aspirational young people. We make this argument by examining the mobility aspirations of young people in Barrow-in-Furness, an industrial coastal town with a local employer (BAE systems) that has abundant job opportunities and average pay is higher than in other parts of the country. While some of the young people we spoke to welcomed the security that these opportunities offered, the majority wanted to move away from Barrow, even if it was not in their economic interest to do so. We argue that the lack of leisure and community spaces, particularly for young adults, plays a key role in this. The relationship between the dominant employer and the local community is also a factor. To make this argument, we use theories of youth (im)mobility aspirations and place-based sociology of youth and draw on qualitative data (in-depth interviews and visual mapping) that we generated with young people and youth practitioners in Barrow-in-Furness this year.

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