Blackpool Conservative Group

19/09/2026

BLACKPOOLS DEBT JUMPS TO £605 MILLION

Over £2 million of your money every month is paid in interest, before a single pot hole is filled, street light repaired, park maintained, or youth club funded.

19/09/2026

THE ROBINSON: £8.3 MILLION SPENT,
BUT LABOUR STILL CANNOT SHOW THE RESULTS

Blackpool’s Conservative councillors are calling for straight answers over The Robinson business hub after council papers confirmed the project was delivered late, cost £8.3 million, and was falling well short of key targets for jobs and business support. The refurbishment has produced improved office space and retail units, but residents deserve to know whether it will provide value for money in the years ahead.

The Robinson is a council owned business hub within the refurbished Stanley Buildings on Church Street. It offers serviced offices, co working space, meeting rooms and related facilities for small businesses. The Conservatives support investment that brings empty buildings back into use and helps local firms grow. Nobody disputes that the building looks better, or that improving a heritage property has value.

But Labour’s job is not finished when the ribbon is cut. It must also show that the project is affordable, well managed and delivering the benefits that were promised.

The original business case put the scheme at around £6.7 million to £6.8 million. That scheme did not proceed, and the council says the later design was materially different. Even so, the final recorded cost of the revised project was £8,306,917.19. The council says this was £91,436.23 over its final revised budget, with the balance met from the Economic Development department. That may be only 1.1 per cent against the later revised budget, but it does not erase the much bigger increase in the overall price from the original proposal.

The timetable also slipped badly. The original plan expected construction to start in July 2022 and practical completion in February 2024. Works did not start until February 2024, and final handover was not until September 2025. The Town Deal report also confirms that the revised contract had initially aimed for completion in April 2025, meaning the project ran on beyond that later timetable too.

After handover, the council was still dealing with defects. Its own report referred to water ingress in office units, heating adjustments, access system work, repairs to damaged doors and ceiling tiles, outstanding masonry and tile repairs, fire safety testing for shop units and further health and safety documentation. The defects period was due to continue until September 2026.

The real question now is whether the building is delivering for Blackpool businesses.

The Town Deal project had a target of 230 permanent full time equivalent jobs. By the January to March 2026 report, the figure recorded was one. The report gave this a red rating and said the target was unlikely to be met. It also recorded zero enterprises receiving non financial support against a target of 150, and zero growth start ups or scale ups supported against a target of 72.

The council has since said that The Robinson did not have a full year of trading and that its financial model remains under review. That is fair enough, but it makes proper scrutiny even more important. If a council cannot yet show the annual running costs, income, net cost to taxpayers, Robinson specific business support or job outcomes, it cannot yet claim the project is delivering value for money.

This could be good for Blackpool, serviced office units, meeting rooms and co working space. It has renovated 1,917.59 square metres of office space, improved retail space and installed low carbon measures. The Blackpool Pier Company became the first named new office tenant in March 2026, although the council report says its financial administration function and two staff relocated from Empress Buildings at the Winter Gardens. The report also said take up of co working was limited at that point.

The council’s own occupancy target was 48 per cent by the end of year one, rising to 72 per cent in year two and 95 per cent in year three. Its FOI response said the confirmed end of August figure was 27 per cent by office units or 33 per cent by floorspace. That is below the first year target whichever measure is used.

Retail occupancy was also incomplete. The council reported six of 12 retail units let, with several units vacant for seven months and one under offer. Those empty units need tenants, activity and footfall, not just fresh shopfronts.

Blackpool Conservatives are asking Labour to publish regular, easy to understand updates on occupancy, rental income, operating costs, net cost to the council, arrears, business support and jobs.

Residents have paid for this investment. They deserve more than a refurbished building. They deserve proof that it is working for local businesses and for Blackpool.

Here’s some questions the Labour leadership won’t want to answer…

1. Labour celebrated the opening of The Robinson in September 2025. Why did the council’s own report later show that the first named office tenant did not take up occupation until March 2026, with that tenant relocating two staff from another council linked Blackpool venue rather than creating a new business?

2. The project was originally presented at around £6.7 million to £6.8 million, but the final recorded cost reached £8.306 million. Why should residents accept Labour’s focus on a 1.1 per cent overspend against a later revised budget when the overall cost was about £1.5 million to £1.6 million higher than the original business case?

3. Labour’s Town Deal papers recorded just one permanent full time equivalent job against a target of 230, with the council itself saying the target was unlikely to be met. Who approved such a high target, when did Labour know it was unrealistic, and why were residents not told sooner?

4. The council reported zero businesses receiving non financial support against a target of 150 and zero start ups or scale ups supported against a target of 72. If The Robinson was promoted as a business hub, what exactly were Blackpool taxpayers funding beyond the refurbishment of a council owned building?

5. The project was declared complete, yet council papers later listed water ingress, heating problems, fire safety testing, unfinished access arrangements, remaining masonry and tile repairs, and an ongoing defects period until September 2026. Why did Labour present the opening as a success before the building was fully ready and all defects had been resolved?

19/09/2026

LABOUR KNEW THE RISKS.
BLACKPOOL IS PAYING THE PRICE.

Financial reports presented to the executive this week give a sobering look at the councils finances.

Labour were warned by their own reports in 2022. Children’s Services, borrowing costs and Growth and Prosperity needed close control. Their answer was to say Blackpool needed £8 million in working balances to cope with the risks. Four years on, their latest report forecasts only £2.08 million against a £7.8 million target, with a £5.145 million overspend. That is not sound financial management. It is Labour watching the same problems grow, then asking residents to applaud the monitoring.

This is a record of weak Labour leadership. They identified the warning signs, failed to get ahead of them and have left Blackpool increasingly reliant on reserves, asset sales and hopes that expensive projects will eventually pay for themselves.

The figures in Labour’s own report should make every council taxpayer furious. Children’s Services is forecasting a £4.203 million overspend. Growth and Prosperity carries an £8.049 million pressure. Strategic Leisure Assets is forecast to have a cumulative deficit of £12.474 million by March 2027. Council borrowing is reported at £605 million. Earmarked reserves are forecast to fall from £27.185 million to £21.340 million in a single year.

No sensible person blames children in care, vulnerable adults or residents who need support. They deserve proper services. The question is why Labour keeps failing to build a budget that is honest about demand, realistic about income and strong enough to protect those services when pressures rise.

Labour’s answer has become painfully familiar. Monitor it. Hold another meeting. Lobby government. Dip into reserves. Sell assets. Promise that Growth and Prosperity, the Enterprise Zone and leisure assets will pay back later. But the Council’s own figures show Growth and Prosperity scheme pressures of £6.663 million, while the Strategic Leisure Assets deficit continues to rise.

Four years after Labour said an £8 million working-balance target was needed for prudence, the latest forecast leaves Blackpool with barely over a quarter of that buffer. If they knew the risks in 2022, why are residents now being asked to accept £2.08 million as the likely position at March 2027?

A Conservative Council would take a different approach. We would insist on a properly costed recovery plan, publish clear milestones for rebuilding working balances, challenge unrealistic income assumptions, scrutinise every major regeneration and leisure business case, and stop treating one off asset sales as a substitute for recurring financial discipline. We would protect essential services by being honest about the numbers before they become a crisis.

Blackpool deserves leadership that spots risks early and deals with them. Labour has had the warning, the time and the information. What it has not delivered is financial resilience.

Here’s some questions the Labour leadership need to answer….

1. In 2022, Labour said Blackpool needed £8 million in working balances to manage financial risk. Why does its latest report forecast only £2.08 million by March 2027 against a £7.8 million target, and exactly when will that £5.72 million gap be closed?

2. Labour identified Children’s Services, Treasury Management and Growth and Prosperity as priority financial risks in 2022. Four years later, why is Children’s Services forecasting a £4.203 million overspend, Growth and Prosperity reporting an £8.049 million pressure, and Treasury Management contributing to a £772,000 Corporate Services overspend? What did Labour’s extra monitoring actually achieve?

3. The Council is relying on its Asset Disposal Plan to cover the £6.663 million in year Growth and Prosperity deficit and a £4.966 million Flexible Use of Capital Receipts target. Which assets will be sold, what proceeds are assumed for each, by what dates, and what spending cuts or service changes will follow if those sales do not happen?

4. Strategic Leisure Assets are expected to have a cumulative deficit of £12.474 million by March 2027, yet Labour still points to a plan to break even cumulatively by 2034/35. What annual surpluses will be required from 2027 onwards to achieve that, and will Labour publish the full revised business case for residents to inspect?

5. Borrowing has risen to £605 million while earmarked revenue reserves are forecast to drop from £27.185 million to £21.340 million in one year. What is Labour’s maximum affordable level of borrowing and minimum safe level of reserves, and why has the administration allowed both financial cushions to move in the wrong direction at the same time?

12/09/2026

LABOUR’S £5 “FREE” TICKET TAX HITS BLACKPOOL FAMILIES

Labour’s Blackpool Council advertised 20,000 “free” Switch On tickets, then told successful applicants to pay a £5 administration fee per booking to claim them. That is not free. It is a compulsory charge dressed up in nicer language, and it lands hardest on people many of whom are counting every pound until payday.

The council’s answer is that it needs to cover ticketing costs and tackle no shows, with Blackpool Tourism saying attendance can drop by up to 30% between people accepting tickets and turning up. Fine. Nobody wants empty space at a flagship Blackpool event. But Labour’s chosen answer is to make local residents pay at the checkout after entering a “free” ballot.

That tells you everything about this Labour administration. Rather than organise a sensible waiting list, give people a fair window to confirm, send reminders, or reissue unused places, it reaches straight for another charge. Easy for the Labour leader raking in over £40k from the Town Hall. Not so easy for the parent trying to make a fiver stretch until Friday.

And the 24 hour deadline makes it worse.

If you cannot pay in time, you lose the tickets. No allowance for payday. No thought for people juggling bills. No recognition that for some households, £5 is not pocket change, especially when a family night out already brings travel, food and other costs.

The council can call it an admin fee, a booking fee or a contribution to ticketing costs. Residents will call it what it is: paying to access something Labour has publicly described as free.

There is a better way.

Make the terms obvious before anyone enters. Give successful applicants 48 or 72 hours to confirm. Run a proper waiting list. Reallocate unclaimed tickets quickly. Use named tickets to reduce bulk speculative entries.

If Labour insists on a deposit, make it refundable when people attend and provide a fee free route for those who cannot afford one. Allocate a number to residents with verified addresses in Blackpool in a ballot that is genuinely free. That’s what Conservatives would do.

Blackpool’s Switch On should bring people together. Labour has managed to turn it into another reminder that, when money is tight, their first instinct is too often to ask residents who can afford it least for more.

12/09/2026

LABOURS EMPTY PROPERTIES STRATEGY
HAVENT WE BEEN HERE BEFORE?

Blackpool has been waiting long enough. Under Labour, around 1,500 homes stood empty in 2024—alongside derelict hotels, boarded-up buildings and streets left to bear the consequences of years of drift.

Now Blackpool Council has unveiled yet another housing strategy, running to 2029. But once again, it is heavy on warm words and light on accountability. Remarkably, the Council has published the plan before even agreeing the key targets by which it will be judged.

That tells you everything.

Labour wants residents to take its promises on trust. No firm public target for reducing long-term empty homes. No clear timetable for tackling decaying former hotels. No annual figure setting out how many properties will be brought back into use. No straightforward way for local people to see whether the Council is delivering—or simply producing another report.

This is not a new problem. Labour’s previous housing strategy, covering 2018 to 2023, already identified empty homes, poor-quality conversions, failing guest houses and inadequate private rented accommodation. It promised action then too: enforcement, higher standards, acquisitions and regeneration.

Eight years on, Labour is still writing strategies about problems it was elected to solve.

Blackpool Conservatives would take a different approach. We would set clear, published annual targets to reduce long-term empty properties; name those responsible for delivery; and publish a public scorecard so residents can see exactly how many homes and hotels have been brought back into use.

We would back early intervention with owners, but where properties are being neglected and communities are suffering, the Council must act—not endlessly deliberate. That means using enforcement powers decisively, pursuing Empty Dwelling Management Orders where suitable, applying council-tax premiums properly, and using compulsory purchase powers where there is no credible route to bringing persistently derelict buildings back into use.

We would also establish a focused Empty Homes Taskforce with one job: identify problem properties, intervene quickly, remove obstacles to renovation and report publicly on results. No hiding behind working groups. No targets agreed “later”. No replacement strategy when the last one runs out.

Every long-term empty home is a wasted opportunity for a family, a blight on a neighbourhood and a sign that Labour’s approach is not working.

Blackpool does not need more paperwork, more excuses or another plan with the detail filled in after the launch photographs have been taken. It needs action, enforcement and visible results.

Conservatives would bring empty homes back into use—not keep producing empty promises.

21/08/2026

BLACKPOOLS DEBT & LGR

Nobody disputes that Blackpool needs regeneration, new housing and a stronger visitor economy. The question is whether Labour has borrowed wisely, whether every project is delivering the return promised, and whether the Council can afford the ongoing costs while protecting frontline services.

Assets on a balance sheet are not the same as cash available to pay interest, maintain buildings or fund social care. A council can own valuable property and still face serious financial pressure if income is insufficient or costs rise.

If Labour is confident in its investment record, it should publish a straightforward schedule showing each major borrowing-funded project, its original business case, total cost, outstanding debt, annual financing cost, actual net income and forecast return.

Blackpool residents deserve regeneration—but also transparency, affordability and reassurance that the burden will not be shifted onto taxpayers across any future local-government reorganisation.

16/07/2026

05/07/2026

Nigel Farage plays the man of the people, but the record tells a different story. Reports say he has declared around £2 million in outside earnings since becoming an MP.

That includes a £270,000 payment from Direct Bullion, £18,402 from GB News, and a long list of other paid interests. He has also been found to have registered interests late 17 times, and there has been scrutiny over a £5 million gift not registered he received shortly before entering Parliament.

At the same time, his Commons voting record has been reported as poor. He recorded just 69 votes out of a possible 206, that’s under 35% record.

For most people, turning up and doing the job comes first. In Farage’s case, it is fair to ask whether the side earnings have had more attention than the voters who sent him there.

05/07/2026

Blackpool’s heritage is inseparable from its trams. For more than a century, they carried people across the town and through generations of memories a living link between Blackpool’s past and present.

More recently, the heritage tram experience at TramTown offered something rarer still: the chance for younger generations to experience that history for themselves, and for others to step back, however briefly, into the moments that shaped their youth.

Now, that living heritage has been brought to a halt.