Blackburn unveils vision for £1bn Levelling Up boost

Blackburn with Darwen Council is to bid for £40m of Levelling Up funding from the government to kickstart a regeneration plan which it believes could bring in £1bn of new economic activity.

If successful, £20m would be used to accelerate the first phase of the council's £250m masterplan for Blackburn town centre. The funds would be used to unlock plans for a new £60m skills and education campus of national significance with a cluster of university, training and education leaders.

This would help create a Business Innovation District which could contribute £1bn of new economic activity over the next decade.

A second bid, for a further £20m, would be used to significantly improve the transport infrastructure to the south of Blackburn, including upgrades to Junction 5 of the M65 motorway.

Both projects would support the council’s Blackburn Growth Axis plans. By harnessing the power of existing global companies such as BAE Systems, Euro Garages and Assystems, and positioning itself as a key part of the new Northern Cyber Corridor, the council believes the borough can become an important economic centre supporting 100,000 jobs.

The Growth and Development Team at Blackburn with Darwen Council, headed up by strategic director Martin Kelly, is also finalising the business cases for £25m of Government Town Deal funding secured for Darwen – the full amount available.

Coun Phil Riley, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “When we look at our growth performance over the last decade, Blackburn with Darwen is already starting to close the economic gaps against national benchmarks. We are out-performing our regional comparators in terms of the economic value of what we generate, the jobs we are creating and the new homes we are providing.

"The £40m would immediately unlock a further £50m of investment and would accelerate our plans for the skills campus by a good five years while setting out the infrastructure we need to underpin our ambitious plans as part of the Blackburn Growth Axis.

“We’ve worked hard to develop extremely strong bids to put us in the best possible position and we’re looking forward to the Government reviewing our applications and revealing more details in the summer.”