Inside Blackpool's regeneration story

From swathes of new housing to Talbot Gateway there's billions being pumped into the town - we look at where and what impact it is having

By Ed Walker, first published on 26 September 2024

Away from the seafront there's often been despair at how Blackpool looks.

While the Illuminations may twinkle, a few streets back and those lights fall away to boarded up homes and swathes of surface car parks offering cheap parking for tourists.

But Blackpool is seeing something of a renaissance when it comes to redevelopment.

Around £2billion is being pumped into redevelopment and regeneration in the town - with one of the largest redevelopment sites in the UK, Blackpool Central, on the horizon and the council also securing a £90m shot in the arm for developing new housing in the town centre.

While individual schemes are often announced, built, half-finished, it can be confusing to see what's happening - so we've been digging into what's taking place in Blackpool across housing schemes, leisure plans and trying to convince people to work in the town centre again too.

The map below shows all the major schemes happening, completed or due to happen in Blackpool in the coming years. If you can't see it, tap here or see it on Google Earth.

And we sat down with the leader of Blackpool Council councillor Lynn Williams and director of regeneration and communications, Alan Cavill, to grill them on what's happening and their approach to trying to regenerate Blackpool.

Councillor Williams: "We've been working on this regeneration plan since about 2010 and what you're seeing at the moment is many of those decisions taken now starting to come together. So it does feel like everything is happening all at once but that is often the way with regeneration schemes and particularly ones as ambitious and far-reaching as ours in Blackpool.

"As a council we are looking at not just housing, not just education and not just attractions - we need a mix to lift the whole town."

Blackpool's regeneration has a chequered past, previously being hitched to a failed scheme built around a bid to have one of the UK's super casinos - put out to tender under the previous Labour government.

Director of regeneration and communications, Alan Cavill, has spent two decades looking at redevelopment of the town.

He said: "As a town we have to work that bit harder to try and unlock the kinds of funding you're seeing now.

"Historically then Blackpool has been seen as a place to make a quick buck without really having to invest that much.

"We have lots of lower quality housing stock, so you can buy a cheap property and then very quickly see a return - but without spending much money yourself. So we have a lot of absent developers and landlords.

"What we are trying to do now is work with the banks, developers, investors, and say yes the property and land values might be lower but there is a good opportunity in Blackpool compared to other places."

The 'bank of Blackpool Council'

Both Williams and Cavill point to the Hampton by Hilton development - completed in 2018 - as an example of how Blackpool approaches redevelopment.

The council loaned developers, Create, money to help them take on the former fire-damaged site and the 'bridge funding' needed to attract a national chain like Hampton by Hilton to the site.

Cavill said: "We recognised we needed to help developers to make things happen and as a local authority then it is easier for us to access finance, because we are seen as lower risk.

"Working in partnership meant what was a site that was becoming an eyesore and a dangerous place was turned into a place for tourists to enjoy and also created a lot of local jobs too at the same time."

Williams said as well as partnering the council is not afraid to take on projects itself. They set up the Blackpool Housing Company - which is now worth around £20m - to develop and improve housing stock in the town.

She said: "To paraphrase a well-known catchphrase, housing, housing, housing. That is our priority at the moment.

"We have well-documented challenges with the lack of good quality housing and I think what we have done with BHC is start to tackle this."

Multiversity and forcing people from their homes

The council is also embarking on a major new phase of its Talbot Gateway plans with the Multiversity development coming in just a stones throw from where we're sitting at Bickerstaffe House.

Dozens of homes are due to be demolished to build a new education centre for Blackpool and the Fylde College as it moves from its out of town campus to being rooted in the heart of the town centre.

But this means the council using compulsory purchase orders to turf long-established residents and businesses from their homes and livelihoods.

As The Blackpool Lead has reported on, many of those living within the proposed Multiversity area feel let-down by the council.

Coun Williams said: "Using the compulsory purchase is not something we do lightly.

"But I am firmly of the belief the benefits of the Multiversity will be transformative for this area of Blackpool.

"At the same time we do recognise how unsettling it is for people who live in those streets and we are working to try and make the process as good as it can be."

Those living within the boundary of the Multiversity scheme will receive resettlement payments - known as a Home Loss Payment, and Cavill says for many this will be an enhanced payment.

He said: "We recognise this is one of the most challenged parts of the town and so the payment a lot of people are due to receive - for losing their home or business - would mean they wouldn't be able to afford somewhere else.

"So we are looking at ensuring the amount people are receiving is reflecting the upheaval and means they are able to afford something similar or better in another part of town."

Coun Williams: "But I do appreciate the emotional connection people have, many properties are handed down through generations and so there is that attachment."

If individuals or businesses refuse to settle with the council then the compulsory purchase may be referred to a public inquiry.

Cavill said: "I think, sadly, yes it may be that for Multiversity we do see the inquiry take place.

"But I am hopeful it won't need to come to that."

Multiversity is one of a number of schemes taking place around the Blackpool North station and is branded as the Talbot Gateway.

Cavill is bullish about the council's decision to turn the area into towering office blocks.

He said: "We're going to go from a part of town that often had hardly anyone here during the week to suddenly having maybe twenty to thirty thousand people come in here regularly to work.

"The deals being done for these office lets are long-term, high quality tenant deals - such as the DWP coming in for the Civil Service Hub."

Asked if this was a red herring given the move to working from home, he said the workers coming in were contracted to do at least three-days-a-week.

Further office blocks are likely to be taken by jobs which involve high security clearance and so home-working is more limited due to the nature of the office environment needed - something Cavill says means people will be in and around the offices far more.

Tackling unsafe buildings

The council is also not afraid of using its powers to force landlords and homeowners to improve properties.

Blackpool issues more enforcement notices than many larger councils in big urban areas like Birmingham.

Coun Williams said: "We work in partnership with the police and other agencies and if we think there's a property where it is not meeting the standards then we will act."

The former Hartes building is a case in point - recently seeing demolition take place after enforcement action was taken against the building's owners.

Cavill said it was also about education investors - who often were many miles from Blackpool - about the conditions people were being subjected to.

He said: "We had this group of airline pilots, 30 of them, and they'd invested in the town because there's a history of getting a quick return for your money here.

"These property agents they just write them a cheque every three months and there's no questions asked about how many people are stacked in properties or the conditions they are enduring with mould, structural issues or more.

"So we showed these pilots what was going on and they were shocked - and it got sorted out.

"But sometimes using enforcement notices, which is a last resort, is the only way to get people to tackle the issues."

Bringing housing back to town centres

The town recently receive a £90m boost from the government for a huge Housing Infrastructure Scheme.

Currently without a catchy name, it will focus on 57 properties in its first phase through a mix of converting currently unsafe buildings and building new homes too - in the heart of Blackpool.

Coun Williams said: "We have the agreement with government to move forward with it and it is important to stress this is very much a first phase.

"As you've seen with Talbot Gateway it is a case of build, and then go again for further support, and then build.

"We are at early stages with it but in terms of tackling the lack of good quality social housing we have in Blackpool then this will be a big change."

The scheme is protected regardless of what the new Labour government decides to do as like most of the Blackpool schemes a 'grant funding agreement' is in place which means politicians cannot do a U-turn.

But Mr Cavill said it was touch-and-go as the agreement was only signed on the morning of 5 July - as the general election result came through.

Investing in investors

Blackpool's preference for helping to fund investors hasn't all been plain sailing.

While Coun Williams stresses the council is  'very solvent' at present it has faced criticism over loans it has made to property developers.

The Sands Hotel - which sits alongside the Showtown Museum - had £10m loaned to it and was due to open in 2021. Plans for the site date back nine years. 

Conservative leader coun Paul Galley raised the loan to developer Peter Swann at a recent full council meeting.

He said: “We gave a loan to a company, the Sands venue, to do something with that building and yet it is still empty. Is the loan being repaid and do you have an answer for us as to when that building will be completed?”

Coun Williams told The Blackpool Lead: "We are receiving payments against the loan, so that is being covered. While it is disappointing then we know the developer needs some more time to get the issues resolved and then hopefully it will get open."

But Cavill said the council would take action if the Hotel was not seeing movement by early next year.

He said: "Yes it can't go on forever, we do need it to be resolved."

City status in the future?

Blackpool is bullish about the redevelopment of the town, would city status make it move faster?

Alan Cavill, who was involved in the last time in 2002 the town considered it, thinks it doesn't make a difference.

He said: "I think if you're a place that doesn't have the profile we have - then yes I can see how it helps. Being able to say 'City of' wherever.

"But we're happy with being a town."

Coun Williams said: "I think we have that notoriety - everyone knows Blackpool. Put it this way, being a city is nowhere on the priority list for us as a council right now."

Both point to recent data from the Illuminations switch on which showed more than 60,000 people attended with people coming from Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and beyond for it - as there being no reason for advancing a case for 'city status' as Blackpool is well-known enough.

What both Williams and Cavill hope is that by the council's current investment, and partnerships, the town starts to see its private investment lift the quality of the wider housing around the sites where the council is pumping its money in and starts to tackle many of the empty properties sat around the town centre in particular.