We’ll introduce a holiday lets licensing scheme to stop coastal areas becoming out of season ghost towns - Rachel Reeves

Seeing the businesses at the park, and the work being done to skill apprentices and develop staff careers was a great reminder that the great British seaside holiday isn’t just about building sandcastles, spending time with family and trying to keep out of the rain - but important for economic growth too. And it’s not only our holiday parks that are part of that equation.

From family run businesses to fish and chip shops, our unique seaside spots are creating jobs in entertainment, hospitality and catering, landscaping and sport and leisure, and putting money back into our local and national economy. We should be taking that talent and effort and supercharging it to make our wonderful seaside towns even greater.

There are a few ways Labour would be getting on with that job now.

Firstly, we’d help coastal high streets thrive, by scrapping and replacing business rates with a fairer, more modern system that moves the burden away from high streets and onto the shoulders of online giants.

Then we’d make sure that we tackle workforce shortages, by reforming the Apprenticeship Levy, to create quality local careers in tourism in areas like Scarborough and Filey.

Third, we’d tackle the scourge of sewage being dumped in our rivers and seas. As someone who loves swimming, it is so sad to see beautiful beaches across our North Yorkshire coast blighted like this. Labour will crack down on sewage and dumping in our rivers and coastal areas and force our water companies to take responsibility and clean up this mess.

And fourth, we’ll make sure that second homes in seaside towns are being used – introducing a holiday lets licensing scheme, so coastal towns can reap the rewards of tourism but end the scourge of communities becoming ghost towns when holiday season ends.

Making Yorkshire’s businesses and local economies thrive in this way are at the heart of Labour’s plans for our country.

In my own constituency of Leeds West, our independent local businesses – from the wonderful Kirkstall Brewery to C-Capture innovating on how to store industrial carbon – are what bring our community together and boost local economic growth.

That’s why I was so pleased to welcome Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium, to visit some of the wonderful businesses in West Leeds including Truman Books, Arlington Interiors and Mill Creations, and also hear about some of the challenges they’re facing.

With energy bills through the roof and economic instability high, local high streets are being stifled.

With a pro-worker, pro-business Labour government, we will work in partnership with firms in Yorkshire, not just to get our high streets booming again, but to get industries of the future firing on all cylinders, create jobs and make Britain the best place to start and grow a business.

This plan will all be built on the rock of economic responsibility, with Labour’s strong fiscal rules, our respect for the independence of our economic institutions and with our Office for Value for Money.

Making sure that we have that strong, stable, responsible base is so important because it’s the only way that we can grab hold of that enormous potential and those opportunities of the future that Yorkshire’s economy holds.

And as we’ve seen from interest rate rises again this week, that is what is needed to stop us just lurching from crisis to crisis.

Across Yorkshire, whether in Leeds, Selby or Scarborough, I have spoken to many families and businesses who feel they’re being held back.

People continue to feel the hit from eye-wateringly high weekly food bills, a Tory mortgage bombshell that has led to soaring rents too, and the cost of essentials creeping up all the time.

For too many, this just feels like a cost of living crisis with no end in sight.

They feel family finances are insecure, and with persistently high inflation and interest rates, like the government simply hasn't got a grip, and that it is frittering away Britain's future.

Across Yorkshire and the Humber, 506,800 mortgages are set to go up at an average of £170 a month.

In Scarborough alone the number of people Citizens Advice are helping with the crisis has increased almost nine times since 2019.

Labour knows that we need short term measures to deal with this now – which is why we’ve called for a mandatory mortgage support package, and a proper windfall tax on the enormous profits of oil and gas giants to ease the hit of higher prices.

But we also have to move beyond sticking plasters, and towards building a more secure economy.

By working in partnership with businesses, by restoring economic responsibility, by reforming planning to build more housing and by getting more people back into work – Labour will start to make our economy more resilient and stronger.

Rachel Reeves is MP for Leeds West and the Shadow Chancellor.