Town targeted to be a 'powerhouse'

IT'S a town that even its biggest supporters describe as being at the end of the "UK's longest cul-de-sac." 

- ROB PARSONS

But last week a team of the country's most senior civil servants descended on Barrow with the hope of turning it into a "new powerhouse for the North".

As Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service Simon Case led a delegation of top Whitehall mandarins to the port town on the Furness peninsula, the talk is of how "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform and regenerate the area" can be made real.

Thousands of new high-skilled jobs are set to pour into the area in the coming years thanks to the recent AUKUS deal for the town's biggest employer, BAE Systems, to make hunter-killer submarines for the UK, US and Australia.