Mail Weekly Column: 1 April 2024

On Monday it was my pleasure to welcome the Prime Minister and Chancellor to Barrow. Alongside the Cabinet Secretary, the First Sea Lord, and a host of other officials, they visited the shipyard, took a look at the work going on in Devonshire Dock Hall on Agamemnon and Agincourt, met apprentices at the Submarine Academy, and made a few announcements along the way too.

There’s a reason why so many people from Furness turn out to see a submarine leave Barrow for open water. Quite aside from just how many people in the community work on their construction, they are remarkable things to see in action. As I climbed the gantries in DDH with the PM and Chancellor on Monday, and we got a perfect view over them both, I heard the PM exhale: “Wow.” Seeing those boats out of water, looking as if suspended in mid-air, is quite the sight.

And it is those two boats, and the four Dreadnought Class, and the SSN-AUKUS programme, that brought the Government to Barrow. They have backed the shipyard and given it an order book that will run for generations. But I have been arguing to them for years that in order to deliver, then the community that surrounds and feeds that shipyard needs support too.

This hasn’t been a solo effort. I’ve worked hand-in-glove with the Council and BAE to make this case, and piece by piece we’ve got it done. I’ve lobbied the PM, Chancellor, Levelling Up Secretary and just about anyone who would listen that Furness is an exceptional place, doing an exceptional job, and that if the nation (and our allies) are going to rely on the shipyard, they must support us too. And here are a few of the reasons why:

We have one of the fastest declining populations in the UK - if we want to change that then we need to improve the place that we live and help make more people want to stay, and more to move here. Alongside incredible wealth, we have some of the worst deprivation in the country - if we want to change that then we need to change our approach to supporting people. And we have some of the highest rates of obesity and smoking in the UK, with all the associated diseases that follow - if we want to change that, we need to improve our health provision.

So, on Monday the PM announced something very special. £20million this year to deliver the Grizebeck bypass, create a social endowment fund, and to help improve people’s health and get them into work. And then at least £20million a year for the next decade. So over £220million in total.

That is a game-changing sum of money. Nowhere else in the UK has anything like it, nor the length of commitment shown by the PM. And every penny of it is to be spent for the community, on projects decided by the Team Barrow board. And this funding sits on top of £24million already given to get Marina Village built, and the over £150million in levelling up funding that Furness has already received to do things like bring a university campus here, save our heritage, improve our road, rail and cycling routes, invest in our high streets and so much more.

I’m incredibly grateful to the PM and Chancellor for agreeing to this funding and for recognising the need to invest in Furness to secure its future. This visit - and everything it signifies - is hugely important. But there’s still a massive job to do... we may have the funding, but now we have to deliver on the opportunity it offers.