Expats living on the Costa Blanca will feature in a BBC programme as they struggle to cope in the ongoing Eurozone crisis.

Round Town News | Noticia

A team from BBC Look East visited the coast this week to investigate the affects of the Spanish recession and found there were stories of hard times but no panic.

And RTN was invited to join the debate to give an overview of the situation as the area’s favourite free newspaper, meeting Andrew Sinclair, the BBC Political Correspondent for East Anglia.

Andrew explained he felt it was time to tell the story of British citizens who had moved to the sun but now struggling to cope in the recession and with sterling’s value depressed against the euro.

“It struck me there has been a lot of reporting in the UK about the impact ongoing euro crisis is having on holiday businesses and British businesses in general,” he said. “But no one was saying how the crisis was affecting expats, people who came out here to Spain to get away from all the problems in the world and we have found there is some real hardship out there.”

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He said expats were keen to point out they were not “stinking rich”, adding “a lot of people we spoke to were very much working class, they didn’t have large fortunes to bring to Spain but felt they could do better for themselves than just living on a council estate”.

Andrew added: “They were telling us: ‘don’t think we are rich millionaires, we are trying to make a better life for ourselves and it is a struggle’.

“I am not trying to paint a picture of how terrible life is out here – it’s not. But there is concern and worry about the crisis.”

Andrew said the Foreign Office had confirmed there were contingency plans being drawn up in the UK if “the balloon went up” and there was a widespread panic return to Britain.

He said that was obviously a worst case scenario and the programme was likely to feature people explaining how they were making ends meet or how they were unable to return home for health reasons because their money was tied up in property and they could not sell up.

The report is scheduled to be screened on Sunday 5th February. Sunday Politics is shown from 11am and the regional slot will be screened about 11.30am.

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