Adnan Hussain MP on Blackburn's £20m investment plan

The funding has been allocated to Shadsworth and Intack, identified as communities in particular need of long-term investment.

Following discussions with local stakeholders, including Blackburn with Darwen Council, I have also supported extending the area to include parts of Highercroft, as, in my view, Highercroft has been overlooked for too long. £20 million will not solve every problem, but if it is spent wisely, it can make a real and lasting difference.

What matters most, though, is not simply the size of the investment. It is who gets to decide how that money is spent.

For too long, communities have been spoken at rather than listened to. Decisions have too often been made for people rather than with them. Pride in Place gives us a chance to do something different.

The programme is intended to be community-led, with a Neighbourhood Board helping decide local priorities. That could mean better public spaces and shopping areas, tackling empty properties, improving transport, supporting community facilities or measures such as CCTV.

But those decisions should be shaped by the people who actually live there.

I will sit on the Board as Blackburn’s MP, but I do not want it to become another committee dominated by politicians and officials. I want residents, parents, young people, businesses, volunteers and community groups around the table. 

Over recent months, I have spent time in Shadsworth and Highercroft, speaking to residents, headteachers and people working with communities every day. What I have found is a place with enormous potential.

There is already excellent work happening, including through Together Housing, schools, community organisations and local residents. But there is also a sense that these working-class communities have too often been overlooked.

That was brought home starkly in June, when an 11-year-old boy was injured in a reported stabbing in the Fishmoor Drive area, and another 11-year-old was arrested. Speaking afterwards with people working with children locally reinforced something important: we cannot simply respond to individual incidents. We have to look at the environment in which our children are growing up.

That means thinking seriously about youth provision, community facilities, public spaces, opportunities and support for families.

It also means being honest about what investment looks like.

There is little point in spending millions on a building if there is no sustainable plan for what happens inside it. Regeneration should not simply make somewhere look better. It should make people’s lives, opportunities and confidence better too.

This programme will run for ten years. If we get it right, its legacy should be much bigger than a list of projects. It should leave behind a stronger community with greater confidence and a greater say over its future.

That is why I am encouraging people from Shadsworth, Intack and Highercroft to consider putting themselves forward for the Neighbourhood Board.

You do not need to be a politician or have experience sitting on committees. You simply need to know your community, care about its future and be willing to contribute.

The people who know these streets best should have a genuine say in what happens next.

If we can achieve that, Pride in Place will be about much more than £20 million. It will be about putting power back where it belongs: in the hands of the people who call these communities home.

Expressions of interest in joining the Neighbourhood Board can be made through Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Pride in Place page. Alternatively, I am happy to take any enquiries at my weekly constituency surgeries. To arrange, please contact 01254 643337 or via email at adnan.hussain.mp@parliament.uk.