Furness: Opportunities and Challenges

Furness: Opportunities and Challenges. Click on the image to download the report.

I think that the title of this report says it all: Opportunities and Challenges. That is a good summary of what we face in Furness at the moment.

A persons’ true character is revealed by the decisions they make when under pressure. When I think of the last year and a bit - in and out of lockdowns, stressed, disconnected - there are many highs and many lows, but that time has also exposed what Furness is.

I’m glad to say - proud to say - that we are a community that doesn’t pull up the drawbridge in a time of uncertainty, but that reaches out to neighbours and those in need. We are a community that is fundamentally strong. A community whose outlook and community is shaped by our geography and relative isolation. Proud and bullheaded sometimes, for sure, but strong nonetheless.

But we are also a community with sharp divides and contrasts:

• Between some parts of Barrow borough where the population density matches that of the UK's biggest cities, despite having no high-rise accommodation, and the sparsely populated hills of High Furness.

• Between a community that accelerated into life following the discovery of iron ore and which is still heavily invested in shipbuilding, with 1 in 3 of the working age population of Barrow employed in the shipyard, and rural communities who could not be more distant from that.

• And most notably between significant prosperity and grinding poverty, often rubbing together side by side, literally streets away from each other.

I keep returning to the the title of this report: Opportunities and Challenges. It strikes me that the two are intrinsically linked. That perhaps more than ever, Furness’ future is its own to shape.

And we have reasons for optimism. The shipyard has stability and a long order book. And elsewhere in Barrow we have secured £25million in Town Deal funding to bring a university campus to town, improve cycling and walking, establish community hubs, and move forward Marina Village. In Dalton and Ulverston the Borderlands scheme offers a steady stream of funding to support community assets and bring forward developments. Our Levelling Up Fund bid offers a chance to highlight Barrow’s cultural offering, improve the market, and drive footfall back into the town centre. Local government reform - due to be in place by 2023 - also offers the opportunity to strengthen our local institutions and support for Furness’ residents, pooling resources and talent across Furness and breaking down some of the artificial barriers which exist.

There’s more too - Eden North, the Hartley’s Brewery development in Ulverston, The Farmers at Spark Bridge - Furness is lifting its head and showing the world some of the amazing things that we have to offer, from our coastline and nature reserves, to our market towns and proud heritage.

These things are all reason to celebrate, but the question we must ask ourselves is whether they will help address the challenges which this report so eloquently spells out.

Personally, I think the answer to that is ‘yes… but’. They will go some of the way. Perhaps quite a long part of the way, but there is so much work still to be done.

To change the dynamic in a place like Furness, we need to make a shift and gear our time to supporting families and communities from the outset. To prevention rather than cure.

To my mind, it is in those gaps, in allowing problems to take root and grow, that Furness faces its challenges. And we must rise to it. By changing our focus to the things that worry away at the fabric of our society - financial exclusion, dependency, loneliness, skills - by providing people with a ladder, we have an opportunity to make a real and lasting change to the communities that we live in and care so much about.

We have so many great organisations that are already here doing just that and the report highlights just a few of them like The Well, like the Furness Multicultural Forum, like DropZone, and we must learn from them about what works.

We also have to look to our strengths and future opportunities. Despite being the beating heart of UK shipbuilding, we also have an opportunity to drive the UK's green industrial revolution, intelligently knitting together offshore wind, nuclear, gas, hydrogen and lithium production, and even tidal energy. We shouldn't think of it being either/or, but rather as another chance to give opportunities to our people - of skills, of good jobs, and of a bright future.

This report is going to be crucial to me as I make the case to Government for support for our community. Very few places have such a clear-headed snapshot in time of their home, of the challenges they must rise to, and the opportunities that they must exploit.

As we look to Levelling Up and Building Back Better, this report will give me the tools I need to present a strong case to Ministers for why our amazing community should be supported, so that we can narrow the opportunity gap.

A huge thanks again to Andy and the team for all your hard work and for making my job considerably easier as a result.