Placing people at the heart of tomorrow’s coastal communities

Across the North and the wider UK, Muse seeks to enhance communities and the lives of the people who live and work in them by breathing new life into towns and cities. Working individually or as part of the placemaking partnership the ECF, our approach not only focuses on the visible transformation of a place. Crucially we work together with our partners and those in local communities to unlock wider economic, environmental, and social benefits for people from all walks of life.

From education to jobs, and skills development opportunities, we are committed to delivering social impact in the places we are working.  This approach is applied in our cities, and on our shorelines, where we have helped shape the future of the UK’s coastal communities.

As industries have shifted and economies have evolved, many of the UK’s coastal communities have been left facing significant challenges. These include underinvestment, declining career opportunities, a reliance on seasonal industries and higher levels of economic inactivity than inland areas.

Yet, our coastal communities remain places of enterprise and invention. Places integral to our future, as they were in the past. Economic hubs, cultural centres, and places which great people call home, all year round.

At Muse, and as part of ECF, we have worked together with our partners and communities in coastal areas to re-capture this potential. Our approach has been led by a core belief that the key to creating tomorrow’s coastal communities lies not just in bricks and mortar, but in its people.

Regeneration must be a driver of opportunity. It must open pathways for skills, jobs, and enterprise. Working in partnership with local authorities, education providers, and investors, we ensure our work acts as a catalyst for long-term, inclusive, growth.

At the heart of this vision is a simple truth: places succeed when people succeed. Through successful regeneration, we can harness local expertise, create jobs and unleash business and entrepreneurship opportunities.

Our work at Talbot Gateway, in partnership with Blackpool Council, is an excellent example of how we did this from the very start of the process. A key part was the delivery of state-of-the-art hotel accommodation which would further boost Blackpool’s visitor economy. It could have been easy to purely focus on the result. Working alongside Blackpool Council and our contractor, Robertson, we wanted to ensure that the local community was with us throughout the hotel’s construction.

One of the main ways in which the active construction phase of the hotel did this was through harnessing local expertise through employment and training opportunities. Many of those working on-site enjoyed the benefits of working closer to home and were proud and passionate to play a part in the regeneration of their town.

A strong partnership was also built with Blackpool and Fylde College, leading to the delivery of student talks, a virtual work programme and an insightful ‘Women in Construction’ event. These were complemented by site visits, enabling students from local colleges and training schemes to witness the workings of a live construction site first-hand.

As part of the third phase, significant levels of social value were also generated. 350 weeks of training created, nearly 300 work placement weeks, and over 50 construction employment opportunities for people not in education, employment, or training.

The outcome of this provided another boost of bringing 3,000 professional workers into the town centre which will benefit the local economy for years to come.

We’ve also recognised how improving transport infrastructure facilitates the economic potential of coastal places and provides confidence in its reliability as a place to live, work, and grow.

In the North East coastal town of South Shields we put healthy connectivity at the forefront of the masterplan, with a brand new £21m state-of-the-art transport interchange. This has brought together the town’s Metro and bus station, with improved accessibility for the whole community.

This investment acted as the anchor for our local investment, which included the delivery of The Word, National Centre for the Written Word, a state-of-the-art cultural venue for South Tyneside Council. The building is brimming with exciting experiences, activities and facilities for people of all ages to engage with and enjoy, from a digital media wall and FabLab to an immersive storytelling experience and interactive touch-tables. The building is also home to 70,000 books and OpenZone which provides digital learning and ICT to schools. At its core, The Word celebrates the written word in all its forms through a rolling programme of events, exhibitions and inspiring and educational workshops.

Elsewhere in Millbay, Plymouth, we created the first new marina in the city in 75 years through our ECF partnership with L&G and Homes England, alongside Plymouth Council. We’ve transformed Plymouth’s historic docks from a derelict, brownfield site into a thriving waterfront community and destination.

Central to this was the delivery of a 1,000 pupil School of Creative Arts, that puts culture right at the heart of the regeneration and pursues a core intention of ‘Creating Individuals and Making Futures’.

We are committed to ensuring tomorrow’s coastal towns are not just places to live, but places for people to learn, work, and grow.

By putting people – through education, jobs, skills, and opportunity – at the heart of our approach to placemaking in these areas, we are helping to secure bright and exciting futures for these places.