PLANS to demolish as much as 400 properties in central Blackpool have created a culture of fear, the assistant curate leading Beacon Church, the parish church, said this week.
The curate, the Revd Matt Lockwood warned that the plans, which can draw on a £90-million fund granted by the last government, had caused a deterioration in mental health amongst residents, anxious about Compulsory Purchase Orders and their ability to stay in the world.
The £90-million allocation from Homes England’s Brownfield Infrastructure Land Fund was announced by Michael Gove, then the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, in 2024. After consultation, a 15-year “Central Housing Regeneration Area Framework” was published. Existing housing — a number of the worst within the country — was a “significant barrier to Blackpool fulfilling its potential”, it said. The plans would “create a combination of top quality homes in protected and welcoming neighbourhoods with good local amenities, green open spaces and places to play and be together”.
The framework identified, among the many challenges, a drastic reduction in tourism in Blackpool, leading to the subdivision of many guest houses into poor-quality privately rented residential accommodation. It also listed a high variety of homes occupied by quite a few households (three-quarters of which rented for brief periods of time, “which undermines community spirit”) landlords who didn’t maintain or manage their properties well, and concentrations of households depending on housing advantages, “which collectively undermines the standard of the environment and the social and economic sustainability of communities in the world”. Of 679 properties inspected, two-thirds were found to have a Category 1 Hazard (could lead on to death or serious injury). Private-sector investment would only be secured by tackling of such issues, it concluded.
ERIN SERRAIMAHousing within the Revoe area
The council is currently in search of planning permission to demolish as much as 400 existing properties inside a “red-line” area of Mr Lockwood’s parish as agreed in March 2025. It has set out a vision to exchange the demolished properties with 230 recent dwellings alongside more green and communal spaces — although this depends on attracting private-sector investment. Compulsory purchase orders could possibly be used as “a final resort” and “where there may be a compelling case in the general public interest”, it said last yr. Home visits, drop-in sessions, and surveys could be carried out as a part of a community engagement programme.
This week, Mr Lockwood spoke about his work as chair of the neighbourhood motion group Revoe Together. The group was not against regeneration, he said, “it’s the best way they’re doing it. I and lots of others have concerns about how power is getting used.” A “top-down” approach had been taken. “In reality, they’ve just said to people ‘We are going to knock down your housing but provide you with support to search out some place else to go and also you won’t have the opportunity to return.’” This had created a “culture of fear” and residents were feeling they needed to “beat the frenzy” to go away, he said.
Most people in the world were privately renting, and the waiting-list for social housing in the world already had 1000’s of individuals registered. One older man had been offered far lower than he had paid for his house while one other family with a three-bedroom part-owned house had been told they only needed a one-bedroom flat. A person with “acute mental health issues” had been offered two “awful” properties.
“What we would like is for the community to be empowered slightly than completely disempowered, to see lasting change for his or her community for the good thing about them and other people who live there presently,” he said. “Part of that’s saying we would like people to have a right to return and are available back.”
The Council acknowledged in an Equality Analysis last yr that some residents would find it difficult to stay in the world. “The Council acknowledges the present community will witness negative experiences within the short term as the world around them is assembled for demolition but it will be important to recollect the aim of the project.”
