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Deprived areas of the UK will be given tens of millions of pounds each from a new fund that Keir Starmer hopes will help Labour tackle the threat posed by Reform UK.
The prime minister will launch the regeneration initiative on Thursday, gambling that an updated version of “levelling up” will address anger about Britain’s broken communities.
He will say the money will help “get rid of the boarded-up shops, shuttered youth clubs and crumbling parks that have become symbols of a system that stopped listening”.
More than 300 areas across the country will each be given the cash to patch up derelict shops, pubs and libraries, as well as new powers to decide which businesses can set up on their high streets.
The fund forms a central plank of Labour’s policy response to the rise of Reform, which the prime minister believes is thriving in part because of voters’ discontent over the poor state of their local communities.
It also forms part of Starmer’s own fightback against his internal and external critics – including the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham – who accuse him of failing to do enough to stop Nigel Farage’s party establishing a 10-point lead in the polls.
The prime minister said: “As a nation we have so much that unites us, but we are also a country of a thousand neighbourhoods, where our sense of pride depends on what we can see from our doorstep. I know people are proud of their area, which is why they are so desperate to look after what they love and to get rid of the boarded-up shops, shuttered youth clubs and crumbling parks that have become symbols of a system that stopped listening.
“That’s why we’re not handing down promises from Westminster. People have the answers to the problems in their communities and now they’ll have the tools to fix it. More power to restore pride in where they live – and on their terms.”
Starmer heads to Liverpool this weekend for what is likely to be one of his toughest party conferences as Labour leader. With the party 10 points below Reform and close to its lowest ever poll rating, the prime minister is under more pressure than ever to show his strategy for government is bearing fruit.
The pressure increased on Wednesday when the New Statesman published an interview with Burnham in which he said the Labour party faced an “existential” threat and that the country needed “wholesale” change.
“Am I ready to work with anybody who wants to sort of put in place a plan to turn the country around? I’m happy to play any role,” Burnham said, in comments that were widely interpreted as expressing an interest in the Labour leadership. “I am ready to play any role in that, yes. Because the threat we’re facing is increasingly an existential one.”
On Wednesday evening the Telegraph published an interview with Burnham in which he said MPs had privately urged him to challenge Starmer for the party leadership.
“People have contacted me throughout the summer – yeah. I’m not going to say to you that that hasn’t happened, but as I say, it’s more a decision for those people than it is for me.”
Thursday’s announcement forms one part of a multi-day fightback by Starmer during which he also intends to give a speech about the threat of populism on Friday, before giving his conference speech on the theme of “reclaiming patriotism”.
Under the regeneration plan that the prime minister will announce on Thursday, 330 deprived areas will receive tens of millions of pounds over a decade to be spent on renewal schemes. Officials say many of those areas will be in coastal communities, former coalfields and market towns – the kinds of places that voted heavily for Brexit and where Reform is performing strongly.
They described them as “places that fell through the cracks of previous regeneration schemes”, with many of them having lost libraries, youth centres, pubs and post offices in recent years. The scheme has echoes of the previous government’s levelling up agenda, which was a plan championed by the former prime minister Boris Johnson as a way of reducing Britain’s yawning regional inequalities.
Unlike the levelling up funds, local authorities will be given the freedom to decide where the money will be spent, as well as extra powers to help them regenerate their high streets. Experts warn, however, that the money will need to be allocated and spent quickly to make a difference on either an economic or political level.
Jack Shaw, the director of the thinktank Groundwork Research, said: “[This] announcement makes clear that investment in the public realm and high streets is back as a political priority – and on a bigger scale than under the Conservatives.
“But history tells us funding like this has been too slow to reach communities. If ministers want to deliver real change, they’ll need to move quickly and get spades in the ground without delay.”
Alongside the money, local authorities will also be given extra power to take over derelict buildings and block certain businesses from setting themselves up on the high street. The government is planning to bring new legislation to allow local authorities to block bookmakers and other gambling businesses, vape shops and barbers that are deemed to be “fake”.
The proposals are part of a wider devolution drive being spearheaded by the new communities secretary, Steve Reed. The Guardian revealed this week that Reed was keen to give mayors more powers, with ministers exploring the possibility of handing over power on some health and education services to mayoral authorities.
Downing Street believes Labour’s best hope of winning the next election is to show that there have been tangible improvements to people’s daily lives and local communities, if only small ones.
Officials liken the strategy to the “broken windows” theory of policing pioneered by the New York police chief William Bratton in the 1990s, which prioritised dealing with low-level vandalism and antisocial behaviour as a way to foster local pride and help stop more significant crime.
“It’s about demonstrating progress is possible,” said one No 10 official. “You can’t be progressive if people no longer believe in the idea of progress.”
