Rent and food poverty among issues for Hastings voters

With some vibrant neighbourhoods and a proud fishing history but also some of the highest levels of deprivation in England, the seaside town of Hastings has many sides.

On 7 May, voters in the town and in neighbouring St Leonards will have two votes, both of which could bring about significant changes.

One is for East Sussex County Council, which has been Conservative-run for 25 years but which few expect to stay that way.

The other is for Hastings Borough Council, run by Labour for much of the last 15 years until internal party splits left them with fewer councillors than the Greens, who took charge in 2024.

With Reform UK also chasing hard here and the Liberal Democrats and a number of independents standing, there is a real fight to win over potential voters.

So what matters to some of the potential voters in Hastings?

At The Grumpy Cook cafe in the town centre, owner Barry Ashley describes himself as being "on a little mission to help fight food poverty".

He sells low cost food to his customers and wants to see more done to help children in families who are struggling financially.

"Some of them, a lot of them, don't wear socks, don't have underwear," he said. "We need to make sure that they've got all these things in place.

"If we don't do anything about it now, we're going to pay for it further down the road.

"We're going to pay for it in more shoplifting, more crime, higher benefits bills, because these people are not going to go on to succeed."

Twenty-seven per cent of children in Hastings live in low income families, according to government figures.

Paul Rea, who is a life-long Hastings resident, said the town had "gone down in its esteem" as local industries like fishing declined.

He said he mostly wanted to see action from politicians.

"You might see the seafront being looked after but behind the scenes there isn't anything," he said.

"We're losing greenery, we're losing football pitches, there's housing after housing and there's no replacement of those green areas."

Barry has set up a book for his customers to write down questions to send to East Sussex County Councillors.

Several customers asked how the new councillors intended to help families struggling to make ends meet.

Not all of his customers think that should mean more public money though.

Kerry Norman, who works six days a week, said she wanted politicians to take tougher action on people who "don't want to go out and help themselves" and "expect everything to be given to them".

"They think they've got food banks, they get vouchers to feed their kids. Why?"

At the beach in St Leonards, a group of sea swimmers regularly take their morning dip.

Emma Whitehair is one of the many residents who has moved to the area from London and said it was "open-hearted and welcoming".

Perhaps unsurprisingly, she identifies water quality as her biggest issue.

"Clean water shouldn't be political," she said. "It's a fundamental basic human need. And I don't want it to be a footnote of an election campaign."

While she acknowledges that local councils don't have control over water quality, she says she would only get behind a party that has "the environment, the ocean and wildlife" at the top of its agenda.

Kristin Watt-Bonar, who described herself as "more of a sea-dipper", agreed water quality is her top issue but said she was not sure what local councillors could do about it.

So what else is on her mind?

"This sounds really facile but the terrible potholes," she added. "I've trashed several tyres."

For Charlotte Ashcroft, who owns a print production business, the big problem is housing.

"I am under 40, I'm a single business owner," she said. "I moved out of London so that I could rent somewhere cheap. My rent's gone up every single year.

"When I moved here, you could get a one bed for £500 to £600 [a month] . No chance you could get that now."

She blamed a combination of second homes and council-rented temporary accommodation for pushing up prices.

Along the seafront at The Albion pub, landlord Bob Tipler said the number of holiday lets in Hastings was a "mixed blessing".

"Hastings is known as very much a destination town," he said. "People come here all year round because of our vibrant music scene and the events that we put on. We do quite well out of it.

However, he said the "flip side" of that was the lack of rental properties and affordable homes to buy, "particularly for our younger staff".

He also said his business rates had more than doubled from £11,000 to £24,000 and he wanted more "appreciation" for the role of hospitality businesses.

He said it was "difficult for local politicians because they don't hold the purse strings at the end of the day" but "one can hope that the message gets fed up the chain somewhere".

At Hastings Aquarium, manager Liam Thompson wanted more help from local politicians to give families more to do in Hastings.

"I think that we've spent a lot of time promoting Hastings as a destination for young adults, people that are visiting from London," he said.

"We need to understand that as a seaside destination our bread and butter should be families but it doesn't feel like there's a spotlight being put on that audience.

"I really want to see more from the council and from the politicians to bring families and create things for families to do in the area as well."

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