“The time for talking is definitely over and 2026 is definitely the first year of delivery,” according to the man behind the unique three-way partnership that forms Team Barrow.
Simon Case is the chair of the organisation made up of central government, Westmorland and Furness Council and BAE Systems responsible for ‘mobilising the national effort’ to support every aspect of life in Barrow.
“It is about what happens in the yard but what happens on the yard is equally dependent on building new houses, improving the quality of the housing stock you’ve got, good schools and access to good health care,” he told the Northern Lights podcast from Business Crack.
As head of the civil service Simon Case was at the centre of government during a time of major changes both in the UK and around the world.
Earlier roles within defence meant he knew Barrow well and the strategic importance of the work underway within the shipyard.
When Russia invaded Ukraine it started a chain of events that led to the Government’s 10-year investment in the town.
“I’ve known Barrow my whole life but had professionally known Barrow because I’d been in the MOD working on our deterrent programme 20 years ago,” he recalls.
Realising that the town’s shipyard would soon be called on to build more submarines and at a pace not seen in recent years, he worked to convince colleagues from central government to come to Cumbria.
“I forced – I mean literally forced – people from a whole bunch of government departments who had never heard of Barrow and had nothing to do with the nuclear deterrent to start looking at Barrow as a kind of cross-government problem,” he says.
Three months were spent mapping how housing, health, education, the economy – everything – worked in the area. Proof that the town needed significant help was, sadly he says, easy to find.
“It told us just an extraordinary story which was that no matter how much defence money was being spent in the yard it made no sense because outside the yard on pretty much every metric going Barrow was the worst or nearly the worst place in the country in terms of joblessness, health issues, education, addiction levels – just extraordinary,” he said, highlighting a real economic contradiction.
“Some of the most deprived wards in the entire country are here in Barrow despite the fact we spend billions of pounds a year.”
It is only recently that the population of Barrow has begun to grow again as recruitment to BAE Systems has stepped up.
Decades of neglect saw people move away as the demand for skilled work fell.
“The peace dividend that many people celebrated at the end of the Cold War was bad news for Barrow,” Simon Case observes, repeating the comments he made to MPs at a defence committee meeting that the value of people producing submarines in Barrow has been overlooked.
“There are very few towns and cities on the planet that are able to do what happens here in Barrow and both the deterrent submarines and the attack submarines are the cornerstones of our national security.
“When the dark clouds of Russia and China start to overshadow us we come knocking on the door of Barrow and say, ‘oh, sorry, we haven’t talked to you for a while and neglected you for 30 years but if you wouldn’t mind, could you just pull your finger out now and produce submarines at a rate that you’ve never done it before?’ It’s just absolutely nuts.”
Lobbying the last government to agree to a long-term financial plan for Barrow and then convincing the newly elected Labour government to honour it led to the pledge of £20 million per year for a decade.
A plan, workstreams and some early investment has happened during the first year.
When we published news that the views of residents were being invited about what comes next, over 260 comments were made on our Facebook page.
The majority were constructive but some did express exasperation that key decisions over the future of the Forum had still not been taken.
Can he understand scepticism from some?
“I think the thing that creates a sort of a unique part of the pressure that we face is that Barrow’s been made promises before,” he says.
“There have been little pockets of money that have turned up and there’s been a few years of effort to try and do bits of this, bits of that and then it just fritters away. We were very conscious of that when we founded Team Barrow which is why we set ourselves a 10-year programme and got guaranteed funding for 10 years because it’s only through that sustained commitment to Barrow that we will make the sorts of changes. It’s a transformation fund.”
But while £200m sounds significant, the scale of the challenge is such that success will be measured on how much more investment is attracted to the area from private partners.
The hope is that such a long-term commitment by the public sector will encourage developers, national chains and others to ‘buy in’ to Barrow and help transform the town so it is seen as a place more people want to live in.
Tripling or quadrupling the £200m investment is the goal and the only way that a lasting difference can be made.
AUKUS, the project to development a new breed of submarines for Australia, the UK and US is more good news for job security and more jobs in Barrow.
But with an ambitious target of building one submarine every 18 months when the project begins, the challenge now is to build the houses that could soon be occupied by people working on the project.
“The pressure on us is enormous,” Simon Case concedes but is upbeat when it comes to looking ahead to 2026.
“There’s inconvenience that comes first; before you get to enjoy a rejuvenated town centre there’s inconvenience comes because you’ve got to knock some things down and there’s a lot of building work that comes.
“If in a year’s time when we talk, you’re saying people are really complaining about all of the construction work that’s going on in Barrow because they can’t get around their usual walks because things are closed and things are being knocked down and built, I’ll say that’s a sign of success and the fact that we’re actually making progress.”
As we talk Barrow BID staff are power washing the streets outside. More CCTV is to be installed too. But given the national importance of Team Barrow’s aims, does he think it’s right for money to be spent on what some would argue is a local council activity?
“The council hasn’t got the money to do this anymore so it is important that we show Barrovians that it’s not just about big plans for 10 years’ time, there are more immediate things that we can do to help improve the town,” he argues.
But he says 2026 will be the year when tangible signs or progress will be seen.
“All the members of Team Barrow are probably very, very bored of hearing me say that it is time to stop talking and start delivering.
“There’s no partnership like this anywhere in the country. It has taken us a long time to sort of grind the gears and work out what we want to do.
“There has been a lot of talking, consultation and discussion which is important because to get our 10-year vision right we have had to talk to people to really understand what’s needed and how to intervene.”
Barrow is now top of the list for funding because the nation’s national security depends on Barrow being a success.
“There’s all sorts of challenges and global headwinds but oddly enough, I feel much more confident about that because central government is bound into Team Barrow in a way that it isn’t anywhere else in the country. What we now need to do is just break through all of the hyper-local issues and obstacles.”
He points to the decision to award money to improve the Alfred Barrow Health Centre as evidence that Team Barrow has influence when it comes to encouraging investment in the area.
“Why we got £7 million for the health centre is because what Team Barrow does is go to central government and say, ‘you agree that the nation’s security depends on Barrow being successful?
“That means Barrow has to go to the top of your list for investment.’ If you want submarines to deter Putin, you need to invest in the health system in Barrow.”
As 2026 gets underway many will be watching and waiting for more signs of progress but from Simon Case a pledge to listen to scrutiny but also a challenge.
“We will have a fully transparent website and dashboard so people can see what we’re doing and are we on track.
“How many houses have been built? How many more doctor’s appointments are you getting? How are you improving what’s happening in schools?
“It will succeed or fail because people of all different sorts in Barrow as well as around the country get behind this project and think that it’s necessary and it’s going to work.
“This is not a thing that some outsiders are doing to Barrow. If Barrovians want this to succeed that depends as much on everyone in Barrow saying, ‘what can I do to help?’”
