What is Team Barrow?
For years I have been arguing in Westminster that Furness needed greater recognition and support.
We live in a really wonderful place, surrounded by beautiful coastlines, close to the National Park, and with an incredibly strong community. But despite that, we have a fast declining population.
I’ve been making the case that we needed an industrial strategy wrapped around us – supporting not just the shipyard, but the wider area, so that we can attract new people, and help make it easier for the next generation to stay.
Team Barrow is answer to those challenges.
Having lobbied the PM and Defence Secretary, the Cabinet Secretary formed Team Barrow - a group comprising of the most senior civil servants, Westmorland & Furness Council, BAE, and myself.
Together, we are working on a programme of projects that won’t just help deliver Dreadnought and AUKUS, but which will uplift the whole of Furness in the process: investing in our community and its institutions by improving the housing offer, delivering for the NHS, better funding education, supporting local communities, getting people into work, and changing the perception of this fantastic part of the world.
Team Barrow news
What do the numbers mean?
The shipyard has a long order book thanks to the investment which the Government has put in, and the innovative AUKUS deal agreed between the UK, Australia, and the US. Decades of work will flow from this, but BAE cannot deliver on their own - they need people, and they need Furness to be the kind of place that people want to stay in, move to, and settle their families.
This is where Team Barrow comes in. We have to deliver boats, but we won’t be able to do it without improving the community. With over £250million in funding agreed to date (as of March 2024), we can start to do just that.
Here’s what’s been agreed so far:
£5million to set up and run a Delivery Board to improve the local area.
£24.8million to get Marina Village built and 808 new homes created.
£10million to plug the funding gap at Grizebeck and get the bypass done.
£5million to create a social endowment fund - helping our community improve.
£5million to improve health outcomes.
… and at least £20million every single year for the next decade to continue to improve our community for those who live here now, our children, and to those who want to set up their lives here. That is £200million committed to.
