It's the seaside resort famous for its illuminations - where Rishi Sunak's electoral woes could soon be lit up for all to see. Blackpool South will soon be in the political spotlight with a by-election on May 2 to replace shamed former Tory MP Scott Benton, who quit nearly a year after being caught offering to lobby ministers on behalf of gambling investors. But there’s more reason than just political intrigue to care about Blackpool, a place which tells us a fascinating story about the decline of coastal towns and the challenges facing the ‘levelling up’ agenda. With its miles of golden sands, pleasure beach and theatres hosting the country’s most popular entertainers, Blackpool has since the late 19th century been arguably the best place to have fun in the North of
England. But since its heyday several decades ago the story has been one of decline as holiday-makers started taking their breaks abroad, leaving the town with row upon row of unsuitable terraced housing and mounting social problems. While millions of people descend on the Lancashire town every year for some fun by the seaside - including 20 million last year - just a few streets away is some of the country’s most dire poverty. In 2019 Blackpool had eight of the country’s 10 most deprived neighbourhoods - and 12 of the top 20. People in the town also earn less than in any other local authority area and it has more drug deaths than anywhere else in the country. As Scott Benton himself told the Commons last month, parts of his patch are in the top 0.1% most deprived communities in the entire country with low life expectancy on a par with sub-Saharan Africa, with housing at the root of the town's problems. When The Northern Agenda politics newsletter spoke to locals for a special Road to the
election video report - which you can watch here - many were in despair at its squalid and damp housing and high crime rate. But with tens of millions of pounds of levelling up cash poured into the town - paying for a huge housing upgrade and a new 'multiversity' bringing in thousands of students - political leaders hope better times could be round the corner. And a spectacular new museum dedicated to the glory days of Blackpool's showbiz history is expected to bring in a host of new visitors and help Blackpool's bid to rejuvenate itself after decades of struggle. In Blackpool town centre Edison Steel, an 18-year-old bartender, said money had been put into the town centre lately but bemoaned the area's crime rates and abandoned buildings. He said: "I'm definitely leaving this year. I've got one bed flat and the rent is ridiculous for what it is, just tiny, cramped. And there's just no opportunities here compared to the other cities, even in the North." Chef Lewis Plank, 23, said: "I think honestly, it just needs a few more places to open up to go and do more things. There's not much here you can go and do. You've got the amusement parks or fish and chip shops. Other than that, there's not really anything around. But pensioner Herbert Chatters, 78, said since he moved to Blackpool he has been "quite heightened" by the way local leaders have been tackling Blackpool's problems. He said: "And it has got problems, there's no question about it. And I do say that the selection of MPs that we have at the moment are attacking this in a robust and also human manner. So I applaud what they're doing and I think people should support them." A little way back from the seafront in the Road area just a few hundred yards from the thrills and excitement of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, life is hard and poverty is widespread. But the likes of 42-year-old Sarah Hallett, who opened the South Shore Pitstop cafe last summer, are giving a lifeline to people who've fallen on hard times. The cafe has a 'pay it forward' board where customers can make donations to those who need it. "We're not just a cafe, we're a community hub", says Sarah. "You arrive as a customer, you leave as a friend. We promote mental health." Sarah says in her 14 years in Blackpool the Waterloo Road and Bond Street areas have "deteriorated massively" with high crime and run-down buildings. Regeneration cash needs to go across the town and not just in the centre, she says. And what does she think of Blackpool South's now-ex MP? "I actually think that Scott Benton has done an awful lot in the area. He's made a mistake, there's things that have happened that maybe shouldn't have happened, but he has done an awful lot in this area and been very visible." She adds: "I don't want a by-election. We're going to get a General Election so what is the point in having a by-election? It's more funds being spent, when those funds need to be used elsewhere. Why use that £300,000 pounds when we're going to have a General Election?" Adam Turnbull, 40, a cafe customer and food bank recipient who moved to the area after experiencing personal trauma, says the road where he lives has the "single lowest male life expectancy in the country" and child food poverty rates of almost 31%. "And really the likes of Sarah and Pitstop Cafe are the embodiment of Blackpool, which is the hope really. We're in one of the worst positions at the one of the worst possible times that the country can face and you've got people like Sarah that are bringing a little bit of hope to what we do." Adam now hopes to start his own Community Interest Company (CIC) to help locals and says he's inspired by kind-hearted Sarah and her team at the cafe. "Blackpool's got a scrappiness that is unmatched elsewhere," he says. "It just isn't. "Many of us see that we've got nothing but we're doing exactly what we can, a business like this that took over 12-14 months ago that is continually doing as much as they can, continually taking risks, continually taking chances continually opening the doors for other people. She might be selling sausage and bacon, but to call them a cafe is a disgrace really." Despite its deep-seated social problems Blackpool is the undisputed seaside home of showbiz glamour - just ask the cast of
Strictly Come Dancing who make their annual pilgrimage to perform at its Tower Ballroom. And now a new £13m museum - aptly named Showtown - has opened to put a spotlight on the town’s glory days of entertainment, featuring items like a vintage Sooty puppet and Stan Laurel's hat as well as a host of interactive displays to delight young and old. Elizabeth Moss, the chief executive of Showtown, says the museum celebrates 150 years of local history while telling the stories of Blackpool's storytellers, performers and the people behind its major developments. "I genuinely have to say I have never seen so many smiling faces in my life," says Ms Moss, who grew up locally and says the display brings back memories of outings with her grandparents. The response so far has been absolutely phenomenal, people coming through the doors, not necessarily knowing what to expect, but then coming out and just being enthralled by what they've seen within. It's a real place of fun. It's a real place of celebration, and I think it really puts a spotlight back on Blackpool in terms of that pride that local people have of the area." In the next few weeks Blackpool South will become a key electoral battleground ahead of the May 2 by-election. Labour's Chris Webb is the clear favourite to win the seat back for the party which has held it for just 22 years of its 79-year history. The poll is another headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives did not have a local candidate in place when Scott Benton quit despite stripping him of the Tory whip nearly a year ago. They face a challenge from a resurgent Reform
UK, which will be unveiling a local charity worker as its candidate this week, while Andrew Cregan is running for the . Chris Webb, a former head of office for the late Rochdale MP Sir Tony Lloyd, says a
Labour government would focus more of its attention on areas outside Blackpool town centre. He adds: "The residents here have a fighting spirit. They always have. Blackpool has adapted over the decades and it's always modernised. And we see that with record numbers of visitors. We've got 20 million visitors in the last year that have come to Blackpool. That is a huge endorsement of what we're doing. "But the potential that Blackpool has going forward, that's something that I'll be championing to try and get not just public money but private money to invest into Blackpool. We can shape into a resort where we're winning the awards every year for the best budget value holiday, we've got a hotel that was awarded one of the best in Europe. We have the staples, we've got the new conference center, we are booming. But we just need a little more help from government." If anywhere is in need of levelling up - to coin the phrase
Boris Johnson used to try and win over voters in apparently left-behind Northern towns at the 2019 General Election - it’s Blackpool. And the Conservative government says it’s done just that, with Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove using a speech in Leeds to reveal £90m in new funding to help transform squalid and damp housing in the town's most deprived areas. Lynn Williams, the Labour leader of Blackpool council, points to huge regeneration projects like Showtown, the incoming multiversity and the arrival of thousands of civil servants at a new base across the road from her office in a revamped area near the main railway station. She says: "Obviously we have challenges in Blackpool and as leader of the council, this is my hometown, and the council's priority, all of the regeneration work, it's for our people. It's about creating better jobs and opportunities and the housing, housing, housing. We know that a lot of those health inequalities, addiction, domestic abuse, poor educational attainment is linked with poor housing. "And that has been our absolute obsession over the last 10 years, which resulted in the announcement the
Secretary of State made of £90 million. Most importantly that's a recognition from central government that they're going to work with us to resolve this issue because it is so important." She adds: "Blackpool council has been working on this housing obsession for a lot longer than Mr Benton has been in town. This has been a journey for over 10 years because it is misery for our families and our residents who are living in that poor quality accommodation. It is fundamental to the regeneration of this town, is housing, housing, housing."