Troubled seaside town’s huge new £2bn plan to become one of UK’s best again | UK | News


Wind back the clock 100 years ago and Blackpool was the place to be.

From the early 20th century it started to become known as one of the country’s fun-filled pleasure destinations where the sun always shone (at least in the summer).

A place at once close to home yet far enough away to feel exotic, Blackpool would have once been the closest many got to a foreign holiday in their entire lives.

Time hasn’t been kind to the town, however. It stands today as a shadow of its former self, a place ridden with crime, drugs, alcohol, and high suicide rates.

An injection of £2billion will, it is hoped, clean up Blackpool and return it to its glory, and give the town a much-needed lick of paint.

The investment is part of Blackpool Council’s efforts to work with partners who will facilitate economic regeneration and the re-imagination of what the town has to offer on its once-booming tourism front.

The money, a mixture of public and private money, is underpinned by the Towns Fund and levelling-up grants, both sourced from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

One part of the project comes in the form of a bright orange building slap bang in the middle of town that will accommodate 3,000 staff: a new Civil Service Hub.

These new workers will get to and from their office via a shiny new tram system. While Blackpool held on to its original tram system, its infrastructure needed a makeover.

In what is perhaps the biggest investment the town has experienced since the halcyon days of the early 1900s, £22million has been put into extended existing tramways that will now take commuters and shoppers directly to and from Blackpool North station to where they need to be across town.

A new underpass at the train station itself will facilitate this, giving passengers easy access from the station to the tram, from where a new terminal, a grand four-star Holiday Inn hotel and Marco Pierre White restaurant will also be integrated.

The development boasts a string of to-let offices and rental units intended to stir economic activity in the area.

Much of the money being pumped into this part of the project is private. Some £300million will fund entertainment centres, more restaurants, and a heritage quarter.

So-called “transients” largely frequent Blackpool: people who have moved from other areas of the UK, often because of rising living costs, who end up falling into a vicious cycle of unemployment due to a lack of opportunities.

Forums online are amuck with information about the demographics of the town. One local recently writing on Reddit noted a “massive increase in the number of homeless people in Blackpool”, to which hundreds replied agreeing.

Once glorious guesthouses, of which there are many in Blackpool, have since been turned into hostels and temporary accommodations for the unemployed and homeless.

Figures from late 2022 showed there were almost 13 homeless people per 100,000 people seeking help in Blackpool compared to 6 per 100,000 for England as a whole.

Around £90million of the £2billion package will be put into revitalising Blackpool’s housing infrastructure, a move facilitated by a collaborative effort involving Blackpool Housing Company, Blackpool Council, Homes England, and global commercial real estate firm Avison Young.

The funding is expected to be funnelled into developing affordable housing within the line urban areas of Blackpool.



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