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HOTSPOT BLACKPOOL
TRYING ITS LEVEL BEST
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
Special report by Ged Henderson
Blackpool’s motto declares “Progress” and there are signs of that all around. Since 2018, more than £350m has been invested in the famous Lancashire seaside town, including £100m of government cash.
It is clear regeneration is taking place; new buildings are coming out of the ground, there is investment in infrastructure and jobs are being created. It has an Enterprise Zone. Blackpool is already on a levelling up mission.
However, if anything highlights the enormity of the national levelling up challenge, it is Blackpool.
In the Bloomfield ward, not far from the famous Golden Mile, 23.7 per cent of people are out of work due to sickness, compared to 6.7 per cent nationally.
Another grim statistic reveals the ‘all-cause’ mortality rate in Bloomfield is 221.5 per 100,000 - more than double the national average.
The area, home to the town’s football club, is one of England’s “left behind” neighbourhoods, highlighted in a stark report by an all-party Parliamentary group and the Northern Health Science Alliance published in January.
It revealed that people in these most deprived neighbourhoods work longer hours than those in the rest of the country but live shorter lives with more years in ill health, costing an
estimated £29.8bn a year to the economy in lost productivity.
Lead author of the report, Dr Luke Munford, lecture in health economics at the University of Manchester, says: “We have long known that the health of people living in these ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods is worse than the national average.
“We have shown here that if we can improve their health, there are considerable economic and social gains to be made, which will not only improve the quality of life of these people but also considerably boost the national economy.”
Inner Blackpool is home to the most intense concentration of deprivation in England, with eight of the ten most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, according to another report.
That document, by the Blackpool Pride of Place Partnership, also uses the word “stark” to describe some of the challenges the town faces.
It says: “Low wages, low employment rates, high levels of benefit claimants, poor health and high exclusion rates from school mean that child poverty is unacceptably prevalent in the town.
“In inner Blackpool, 50 per cent of households live in private rented accommodation, further de-stabilising the permanency of communities.
“Together, this has led to an economic malaise that is further exacerbated by a high proportion
of residents with long term debilitating illnesses and some of the poorest mental and physical health outcomes in the country.
“With young people under-performing at GCSE level, aspirations in the town are frequently low.”
It’s a picture which explains why those involved in the levelling up process in the town say it is vital the momentum isn’t lost and why it is time to press down hard on the accelerator.
And it is also why it was no surprise that Boris Johnson chose to make an appearance in Blackpool, alongside levelling up ‘supremo’ Michael Gove, as the government unveiled its Levelling Up White Paper in February.
In a speech last summer, the PM had declared: “It is an outrage that a man in Glasgow or Blackpool has an average of ten years less on this planet than someone growing up in Hart in Hampshire or in Rutland.”
So, what does Blackpool need to succeed in its levelling up mission? While it has missed out on the first round of levelling up funding, it has received the UK’s biggest Town Deal, which will pump £39.5m into projects (see ‘Magnificent Seven’).
The PM also pledged to support investment in skills and jobs during his visit, which saw him visit the new Winter Gardens conference centre, which has benefitted from government cash.
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