A £90 million pound package has been announced today (Friday 1st March) for Blackpool for housing-led regeneration. This funding will cover a number of areas of Blackpool including Revoe/Central Drive, Foxhall and Bond Street/Waterloo Road.
Blackpool South MP Scott Benton said, ‘This announcement follows the recent petition I presented to Parliament on the need for regeneration funds for Revoe/Central Drive & Bond St/Waterloo Road, and a parliamentary debate I had on these areas only weeks ago.
It’s a huge vote of confidence in Blackpool and the work taking place to regenerate our town. The fuller details will emerge in time and the project will be led by the council. They know the huge appetite for spending part of this money on Bond St, Waterloo Rd and Central Dr and they must ensure that the plans which come forward include these areas – anything less will be letting down residents in those areas who have been forgotten time and time again.’
The announcement was made by the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove at Convention of the North today (Friday 1st March). This is the latest in a series of government interventions since Blackpool’s regeneration partnership was announced 2022. Homes England was commissioned to work with Blackpool Council alongside the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to develop a detailed proposal for interventions that address poor quality housing in the town’s inner wards. The housing intervention will complement the Department’s wider interventions and council’s work with other partners to boost the town’s economic growth.
Peter Denton, Chief Executive of Homes England, said: ‘I defy anyone to not be moved by the challenges that many of the residents of Blackpool face in their day-to-day life. Blackpool Council are utterly committed to addressing this and Homes England very much wishes to support the vision they have for their town and its inhabitants.
This investment signals Levelling Up in action, indeed social equity, accelerating the regeneration of housing in inner Blackpool as part of a much wider mission to transform local communities and catalyse vital positive change in some of the town’s most deprived areas.
We look forward to continuing our work together, to drive positive change and create strong and vibrant communities in the town.’
Grant funding will also help to construct quality mixed-tenure homes, supported by wider regeneration activity. This work will be led by Blackpool Housing Company, the council’s subsidiary private-rented sector developer, alongside Lumen, its affordable housing provider.
The BIL funded activity will complement a further intervention to improve Blackpool’s housing stock includes an enforcement pilot, led by the council, to encourage landlords of properties which are deemed unsatisfactory to invest in their improvement or to sell them.
In addition, the council is working with partners to deliver a £2 billion investment programme to facilitate economic regeneration and the re-imagination of Blackpool’s tourism offer.
Cllr Lynn Williams, Leader of Blackpool Council, said: ‘We are extremely pleased about today’s announcement. It has been eagerly awaited and is a testament to the strong working relationship we have with Central Government, Homes England and a number of other partners locally and nationally.
Our residents and communities desperately need better housing and investment in their neighbourhoods, especially in the inner areas of Blackpool. We will use this funding to continue the process of positive change, improving housing, neighbourhoods and life chances across inner Blackpool. We will be holding a full public consultation concerning our plans for a first phase.
We want to create strong neighbourhoods – stable, thriving and sustainable neighbourhoods that have access to things like health services, decent jobs, quality housing, schools and leisure activities.
It is our vision that over time you will see the removal of housing that does not meet modern standards, with new and better housing created in its place, in better neighbourhoods, designed with the interests of Blackpool residents and businesses at their heart. We want people to love where they live’.
