Walk through some of the post-industrial towns of Lancashire and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve stepped into another century. In places like Blackpool and Burnley, home to some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England, the streets still echo with the ghosts of Victorian Britain, not from nostalgia, but from neglect. Serious investment hasn’t reached these communities in generations.
This isn’t history. It’s abandonment. You meet families who’ve lived in the same town for fifty years without ever moving up the social ladder. Shuttered shops. Crumbling terraces. Rows of houses going for under £100,000, not because it’s a bargain, but because people have given up on the area.
These communities are cut off, not just economically but physically. Rail connections are poor. Services are inconsistent. In Blackpool, the postcode lottery has produced the lowest life expectancy in England.
And yet these are the very people who built Britain’s backbone. I saw the consequences firsthand this winter. Through the Rehman Malik Foundation’s support to Age UK Lancashire, we supported pensioners in Blackpool and Burnley forced to choose between heating their homes and eating supper. That should never happen in a country like ours.
The North isn’t asking for charity. It’s asking to be seen, heard, and included. A recent IRR International poll, for example, found only 25% of people in Yorkshire and the Humber, and 30% in the North East, believe Westminster understands the impact the cost of living has on local communities — compared to 47% in London.
That isn’t a poll result. It’s a warning.
As Andrew Snowden MP told me: “Many of these towns were built around the mills and factories that powered Britain, providing employment, prosperity, institutions, pride, and a shared identity.
“What changed? The wealth creators disappeared with deindustrialisation—and the jobs went with them…To reverse the fortunes of these towns, access to skilled jobs and training is essential.”
Replacing paving stones in the town square won’t bring these communities back to life. Not if people don’t have income to spend, or purpose to hold onto. Access to skilled work and training is the foundation for renewal. And right now, that foundation is missing.
Levelling up must become more than rhetoric. It must become a blueprint for dignity: better NHS services, reskilling for the unemployed, and real opportunities for young people to stay and thrive.
The decision to slash winter fuel payments only made things worse. We stepped in where we could. But philanthropy cannot be a substitute for policy.
In some places, it’s not anger you hear, it’s silence. Because people have stopped expecting things to change. The people of Blackpool and Burnley are not asking for favours. They are expecting leadership. And the time for it is now.
Ali Rehman Malik is a philanthropist and the chairman of the Institute of Research and Reforms (IRR) International