Huge £17.5MILLION boost for England's ‘saddest town' where high street is dubbed ‘death row'
Barrow-in-Furness was once a thriving port town, but fell into disrepair after jobs in the steel industry dried up, with most shops now boarded up.
5
Barrow has been described as 'England's saddest town'
Credit: David Nelson
5
Many shops and buildings have been boarded up
Credit: David Nelson
5
The town is set for a £200m revamp
Credit: David Nelson
The Office for National Statistics has classified it as one of England's most deprived towns, and a YouTuber who explores the UK's roughest areas described it as "England's saddest town."
Police battle rampant drug gangs, and many buildings have been vandalised with graffiti and broken windows.
Barrow resident James Riche previously told The Sun: 'Covid hit the town centre hard.
"I call it death row because so many of the shops are shut and boarded up. We avoid it."
However, the Cumbrian town's look is about to change.
Barrow is home to the BAE Systems factory, which builds the UK's key military submarines - including the Trident nuclear programme.
And because of its "importance to National Defence" has been granted a whopping £200 million from the government, which will be used to give the town a facelift over the next 10 years.
This is on top of the £17.5 million of cash that was given to the town back in October 2021.
The council said: 'Extra funding made available through Team Barrow means significantly more money is now available and this has the potential to deliver a more transformational regeneration of the town centre.
'The additional funding from Team Barrow would be on top of the money already committed by Government for the current town centre regeneration works.
Inside Barrow in furness' heroin gangs and derelict streets
'In recognition of the town's strategic importance to national defence and security, the Government has agreed to invest more than £200m in Barrow over the next 10 years.
'Team Barrow will use this money – and seek to secure additional private and public sector investment – to help transform the town, delivering improvements across health, education, transport, the economy and community.'
Plans for the regeneration are currently being finalised, but could include a new and improved theatre and events space, better food and drink offerings and leisure and market facilities.
Simon Case, chair of Team Barrow, said: 'We have bold and ambitious plans for Barrow and this includes transforming the town centre.
'While these are very early stages, with a significant amount of work now required to develop these plans, we are clear in our vision that this must deliver more than simply high street regeneration.
'The Government's investment in Barrow presents us with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address the challenges which face the town.
"This means that in addition to delivering a town centre that has a strong retail, leisure and cultural offering, we will also prioritise improvements in housing, health and education.'
Bae Systems is set to drastically expand its workforce, due to a surge in demand, meaning that the population in Barrow is set to swell from 60,000 to 90,000 over the next decade.
Some of the newly employed workers and their families will be housed in a new 800 home waterfront development, called Marine Village.
Case has likened the regeneration of Barrow to the town of Bourneville, which was built specifically to house Cadbury's factory workers and their farmers.
He said: "With the pressure that we've got on getting the Astute boats finished, then Dreadnought and then Aukus, we started to focus on this two years ago for almost Bournville-like reasons.'
"The town is a strategic national asset, although it hasn't always been viewed that way.
'Pretty quickly, we realised we needed Team Barrow to create an environment that would deliver that happy, skilled workforce we need to support the defence nuclear enterprise.
"Thanks to Mr Putin and Mr Xi, the business case makes itself!'
5
The UK's military submarines are made in the BAE systems factory in Barrow
Credit: David Nelson
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
38 minutes ago
- Times
Rachel Reeves warned that deregulation risks financial crisis
The governor of the Bank of England has warned Rachel Reeves that cutting red tape on the banking sector risks sparking another financial crisis as he downplayed the rise in UK government debt costs. Andrew Bailey told a group of influential MPs on Tuesday that rolling back restrictions on the City and ditching bank ringfencing guidelines could destabilise the UK financial system and 'would not be [a] sensible' decision for the time being. In a near two-hour long session with the Treasury select committee before the parliamentary summer recess, Bailey also said that the rise in long-term government debt costs was not 'unique' to the UK. He said investors were ditching US assets to curb their exposure to the dollar owing to concerns about the economy since President Trump returned to the White House. The governor, who, alongside his role at the central bank, recently took up the chairmanship of the Financial Stability Board, said he could understand why some people would think that 'the financial crisis is now way in the past, we've got past that, that's all solved, that's all out of the way, move on'. However, he said that 'for those of us who were veterans of sorting the problems of [the financial crisis] out' there remained a live threat to financial stability which required lawmakers to retain robust regulations. His comments come after the chancellor told bankers at the annual Mansion House dinner this month that the UK's regulatory regime was a 'boot on the neck' of businesses which risked 'choking [them] off'. Bailey, 66, said he would not have used such phrasing. Reeves announced that the government would reform laws that require lenders to separate their retail and investment banking businesses, a requirement put in place after the 2008 global financial crisis to shield depositors from banks' riskier activities. Several City grandees, including Sir John Vickers, the architect of the ringfencing rules, have expressed concern at the government's deregulation drive, which is intended to reverse weak economic growth. Bailey also downplayed the rise in UK government borrowing costs and said that it was part of a worldwide trend created by Trump's volatile tariff policymaking and a general rise in public deficit spending. 'We've seen an increase in term premium in government bond markets… yield curves have steepened', Bailey said, adding this was 'a global phenomenon, it is not in any sense unique [to the UK]'. The rate on the 30-year UK government bond, or gilt, stands at 5.43 per cent, up from 4.67 per cent compared to a year ago. The yield, which moves inversely to prices, on the US equivalent has risen to 4.93 per cent from 4.48 per cent over the same period. Bailey's comments come as figures from the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday showed that UK debt interest spending jumped to £16.4 billion in June, the second-highest for that month since the records began in 1997. Government borrowing topped £20 billion in the month also, above the Office for Budget Responsibility's projection for the month, strengthening expectations for tax increases at the autumn budget. Trump's erratic decision-making on how much to tax imports from specific countries had led to 'rebalancing' among markets 'which involves a reduction in exposure to dollar assets', Bailey said. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six comparable currencies, is down nearly 10 per cent since the start of the year. The governor said that, judging by conversations with market participants and based on granular data, 'the most crowded trade in the market at the moment is short dollar'. He said that since Trump first announced his 'reciprocal tariffs' in April, there had been 'a breakdown in established correlations in markets'. Stock markets globally jolted lower in the immediate aftermath of Trump's first tariff announcements, with the S&P 500 index posting one of its largest losses since the Great Depression. However, an equity rally has since pushed several indices to a record high. This week, the FTSE 100 closed at its highest-ever level of just over 9,000 points. Taxes on goods imported to the US from most countries will increase sharply from August 1 after Trump delayed the implementation of his 'reciprocal tariffs' several times.
Telegraph
41 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Channel migrant crossings to double if Starmer crackdown fails
The number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel is forecast to double this year unless new government measures can curb the flow, independent modelling shows. The research by Richard Wood, one of Britain's top modelling forecasters, takes account of not only weather and sea conditions but also includes asylum grant rates, illegal immigration flows into Europe and dinghy size. His analysis, originally based on five years of data up to the end of 2024, has been accurate in forecasting the numbers reaching the UK so far this year based on 'favourable' weather conditions. More than 23,000 migrants have reached the UK this year, the highest in the first six months of any year since the first arrivals in 2018, which is nearly exactly what Mr Wood's good weather model predicted. He has now updated his analysis, based on the latest asylum grant rates, increasing dinghy size and immigration flows into the EU, and re-run the modelling based on weather data over the past 16 years. The data suggest that unless Sir Keir Starmer is successful in his attempt to stop the people smugglers, migrant crossings will rocket this year. The Prime Minister has negotiated a 'one in,one out' deal with the French by which illegal migrants coming to the UK will be swapped for people who are able to come here legally. If the weather is as good as it was in 2024, when there was a surge in crossings in the second half of the year, then the total number reaching the UK by the end of 2025 will be 44,628, according to Mr Wood's model. This is just below the number of migrant arrivals in 2022, the highest on record, when 45,774 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. If, however, the weather is as bad as it was in the second half of 2023, then the total number crossing will be as low as 36,965. This would still be the second highest total on record. The data provide a benchmark against which the Government's new policy measures could be judged to establish if they have an effect on reducing the crossings. Mr Wood said: 'With the 37th UK-France Summit including various deterrent and enforcement pledges for reducing small-boat crossings, these predictions may serve as a useful benchmark against which progress can be assessed.' As well as the 'one in, one out' deal struck with Sir Keir, France is preparing to introduce tougher tactics where officers from an elite police unit will intercept the people smugglers' boats at sea within 300 metres of the coast in an attempt to stop them leaving the coast. They have also been experimenting with jet skis laying nets to snag the dinghies' propellers. Last week, Sir Keir secured a pledge from Friedrich Merz, the Germany's chancellor, that the country would introduce a new law by the end of the year to enable police to seize boats for use by people smugglers in the Channel. The model, which is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a migration journal, draws on data from sources including the Met Office, Channel Coastal Observatory, Home Office and European Border and Coast Guard Agency. It predicts the daily number of small-boat migrant arrivals for scenarios based on weather and sea conditions, EU illegal immigration, and other factors which may have a deterrent effect. It has two parts: the first that estimates the probability of a day being 'viable', and the second that estimates the number of migrant arrivals on such viable days. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'What we already know for sure is that 2025 to date has been the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the channel – it's up 50 per cent versus last year. 'The Government's laughable claim to smash the gangs lies in tatters. Now they think that confiscating mobile phones and sending a tiny number of people to France will make a difference 'Only a removals deterrent will end this madness – where every illegal immigrant is immediately removed upon arrival to their country of origin or to a safe third country. But Yvette Cooper and Keir Starmer are too weak to do that.'
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Epping is a warning to complacent Britain
While Britain's ship of state drifts serenely towards the rocks, the captain and crew are arguing about the precise order of the deckchairs. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman have both said that the Government must address 'concerns' over migration, without specifying how. Away from Downing Street, the mood is febrile. Protests outside asylum hotels by locals furious at the sudden imposition of large numbers of young men in their towns have been exploited by far-Right agitators, leading to clashes with the police. The observation from one MP that the country is a 'tinderbox' seems close to the mark. Yet beyond a vague sense that something isn't quite right, the Government carries on as normal. Ms Rayner is continuing her project on social cohesion; the people smugglers continue their trade across the Channel; borrowing continues to rise as the population shoulders the burden of the new arrivals. There is no sense of urgency, and no sense of a plan ready to be put into action. Nor is there any real willingness to discuss the precise issues in question. Ms Rayner's comments still appeared to focus on economic insecurity as a primary factor in explaining dissatisfaction, instead of finding solutions to the primary issue of uncontrolled immigration. There is an echo of the political correctness that silenced conversation in the towns where grooming gangs operated. Nor does there seem to be much prospect of imminent change. The potential fiasco of a Tommy Robinson-led demonstration in Epping may well grab headlines should it come to pass, and indeed may be welcomed by those desperate to pretend that the only issues are those created by troublemakers; it will do nothing to address local unease at the changes imposed on the area. Nor will it do so in places experiencing similar shifts. The decision to disperse asylum seekers into hotels around the country remains a baffling one, and it is almost certain that a detention estate separate from the general population would see far fewer potential flashpoints for unrest. So, too, is the unwillingness to slap down judges undermining our borders, or to speak frankly about the long-term costs of our asylum policy. Instead, the ship drifts. There is no indication that anyone in Government has any plan for regaining control over our borders or addressing the concerns of the population. And there is no indication, either, that one is on the way.
