Government hands Blackpool community new powers and investment to restore Pride in Place

Shops boarded up. Pubs gone to ruin. Betting shops and vape stores moving in where proper local businesses used to be. Young people with nowhere safe to go after school. This has been the story of Blackpool for too long.

But things are changing. This Labour government is putting Blackpool people in charge of Blackpool’s future – handing our community new powers to take back control of our high streets.

The Pride in Place programme is the biggest shift of power from Westminster to towns like ours in history. Layton and Grange Park are set to receive £20 million of long-term investment – guaranteed funding over the next decade. On top of that, Blackpool has been awarded £1.5 million in Impact Fund money for immediate improvements to shared spaces, high streets and the public realm.

In Grange Park on my recent Beyond the Prom tour

Instead of watching shops rot away, we can now take them over and put them back into use to benefit Blackpool people. Instead of being told what our community needs by people who don’t live here, we’ll make the decisions ourselves. For the first time in decades, our high streets and neighbourhoods will be in local hands – and the difference will be felt across our town.

Here’s what these new powers mean in practice:

• Community Right to Buy: Beloved assets – whether it’s a pub, a football pitch, or a green space – can be taken into community ownership and brought back to life.

• Compulsory Purchase powers: Boarded-up shops and derelict buildings won’t be left to rot. We’ll be able to turn them into homes for families, youth spaces, or businesses that create jobs.

• Power to block unwanted shops: No more waves of betting shops and vape stores. Councils will have the power to say no, backing the kinds of businesses Blackpool actually needs.

• A real say over spending: Residents and community groups will help decide how money is spent, ensuring investment reflects our priorities – not Whitehall’s.

This is real power that will make a real difference. For years, decline was forced on Blackpool by governments who pulled away investment and told us to accept second best. But our community never gave up – volunteers, campaigners and residents kept fighting to keep our town going. Now, finally, we have a government that’s backing us.

But we must go further – and South Shore must be next. 

With Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Secretary of State Bridget Phillipson in South Shore

Layton and Grange Park deserve this investment – and they will make it count. But between now and the autumn budget I will be making the case to the government that South Shore needs the same long-term backing.

South Shore is one of the hardest-hit areas in the country, with residents here face higher crime, worse health outcomes and fewer opportunities than almost anywhere else in Britain. Young people struggle to get ahead and people feel like they’ve been left behind.

South Shore was flagged as “mission critical” by the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods – meaning it’s one of the neighbourhoods furthest away from achieving the government’s five missions on health, education, crime, skills and prosperity. Without targeted investment, the gap will only grow.

If £20 million over ten years can help turn things around in Layton and Grange Park – and it will – then South Shore deserves the same chance.