‘Where the coast goes, England follows’: Tories risk ‘tidal wave’ if they ignore seaside towns, says thinktank

At Great Yarmouth on England’s east coast the average income is £23,600 a year, but just over 10km inland it jumps to £33,800. Photograph: Si Barber/The Guardian

Rishi Sunak must commit to levelling up England’s struggling seaside towns, or risk a political “tidal wave” at the next general election, a Conservative thinktank has warned.

In a report entitled Troubled Waters, the thinktank Onward shows that communities set within 5km of England’s coast are poorer, sicker and more crime-ridden than their inland neighbours – and calls for a £500m regeneration package.