‘A sticking plaster’: Labour’s levelling up offer leaves Blackpool voters unmoved

Little Layton’s high street ‘is actually quite thriving’, according to a trustee of the Layton Together community project, but many local people are struggling to make ends meet. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

If Blackpool was a stick of rock, Little Layton would be a ribbon of pink in the middle. To its left, the deep red of rundown bedsits near the promenade. To its right, the plush green streets of Poulton Le Fylde, where £1m mansions overlook a well-tended golf club.

That is to say, Little Layton is one of the nicer parts of Blackpool. Yet it is one of 169 places across the UK awarded up to £20m over 10 years as part of a £5bn government programme to spruce up parks, pubs and public buildings.