Blackpool: Embedding partnerships and changing perceptions
Blackpool Central masterplan simulation, 2020. © Blackpool Council
An iconic place reshaping its future
Blackpool has held the crown for this country’s leading seaside resort for almost 150 years. By the mid-1800s it was a popular health resort. Blackpool’s first illuminations, unveiled in 1879, established the town as the home of visitor attractions, British seaside glitz and frivolous fun. Like seaside resorts across the country, it was hit by the advance of cheap international air travel in the 1970s. Yet Blackpool has held onto its status as an iconic holiday destination.
It has “brand awareness to die for” according to Nick Gerrard, Growth and Prosperity programme Director at Blackpool council.
Coupled with tremendous highs, the Town has experienced significant social challenges, owing in part to the seasonal availability of employment and more transient populations. Before the impact of Covid-19 on the tourism and health and social work sectors in Blackpool had been counted, the Town’s unemployment rate was already almost double the national average at 6.3%, rising to over 20% in some of the most deprived areas of the Town.
Investors need to see more than frivolous fun and hardship
The images of leisure and fun on the one hand and of deprivation and multi-generational hardship on the other, have dominated perceptions of Blackpool’s identity in recent times. This image problem has made it difficult for businesses to see Blackpool as a serious option for investment.
A well-connected, ambitious and successful Towns Fund bid has enabled Blackpool to put vital schemes into action that will unlock an expansive programme of regeneration funded by both the private and public sectors. Equally, an ongoing campaign to highlight the strengths of the Town in sectors such as aerospace and digital connectivity is beginning to write a new story for the Town and shift perceptions.
When Nick took up his post at Blackpool council in 2016, he too came with some prejudice about the place.
“I've been involved in economic development and regeneration all my career and I shared many of the negative perceptions of Blackpool. I came here particularly passionate about changing those to reflect the reality of what is actually going on”, he says.
Long-term thinking, an appetite for measured risk taking, and a true ambition for change
“Regeneration is hard work and schemes often take quite a long while before the full benefits are realised” Nick says, recognising that efforts to change the tide towards a more prosperous future for Blackpool have been mounting for a number of years.
Prince of Wales charity Business in the Community (BitC) have been working alongside the Council for the last four years to develop ambitious plans for the future of Blackpool. This has included establishing the Blackpool Pride of Place Partnership in 2017 and beginning to build long-term public and private partnerships to deliver the change needed in the Town. Additionally, the 2018 Blackpool Town Prospectus sets out multi-generational thinking and reflects the long-term nature of regeneration, with an ambitious 2030 vision. It also commits to changing perceptions of the place by actively promoting facts around the Town’s hidden strengths and assets.
Changing perceptions with new stories
“People have a very fixed idea as to what Blackpool is or isn't,” says Paul Smith, Chair of Blackpool Town Deal Board.
“Last year the high-speed fibre optic transatlantic cable landed in Blackpool, and a third of the world's internet traffic will go between New York through Blackpool and on to Scandinavia. People just dismissed it and said that can't be right! But once you start explaining this to potential investors, the scales fall from their eyes, and they can see a wholly different narrative.”
Cross-sector, collaborative working has been integral to Blackpool’s Town Deal Board. Paul says that when establishing the Town Deal Board there was, “this natural way of working with business, central and local government and the community. The investors in the town, the main businesses, the college and the football club, they're all represented. So that partnership way of working was ingrained into Blackpool.”
Building relationships that last around a shared vision
Again, thinking of the long term, Paul recognises the importance of a strong and diverse board and says, “Town Deal Boards and the Towns Fund programme will go on for years. Central government wants confidence that the Board and the people in the place will deliver and be reliable partners.”
Nick, his team at Blackpool council and partners across the Town Deal Board are steadily building towards their shared vision of Blackpool.
Importantly, they are committed to sharing new stories of what Blackpool is today - creative, enterprising, and full of potential - as a means to reaching their vision for the future.
“I think what distinguishes the good investment plans from the not so good are a true vision and a strategy where the projects are joined together”, says Paul.
Blackpool has proven this through their Prospectus. “The Towns Fund met with our ambition” says Nick, and it is “a key means of delivering major elements” of what they hope Blackpool will become known for, generations from now.
This story was written from a conversation with Nick Gerrard, Growth and Prosperity programme Director at Blackpool council and Paul Smith of Business in the Community, Chair of Blackpool Town Deal Board.
Blackpool is one of 101 places invited by the Government to develop Town Deal proposals to deliver long-term economic recovery, clean growth, jobs and prosperity as part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund. Blackpool submitted a successful Town Investment Plan and secured a Town Deal of up to £39.5 million in October 2020. Blackpool is currently developing Business Cases to take forward their Town Deal proposals.