New research highlights how Blackpool – an English seaside town once dismissed as a “left-behind place” – is succeeding where others have struggled: by creating an ambitious, high-quality climate action plan.
Despite high levels of deprivation, underfunded services and limited spending power, Blackpool Council now ranks in the top 30 per cent of UK local authorities for climate planning, according to independent scorecards from Climate Emergency UK.
With local authorities increasingly expected to lead on the UK’s net zero targets, regardless of their capacity to do so, what can Blackpool teach us about delivering bold climate action in tough circumstances?
Challenging the assumptions
Deprivation is often seen as a barrier to effective climate action, and most academic research has focused on local authorities that oversee large, well-resourced cities. However, a new study from Alfie Gaffney of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia (UEA) explores a different story.
Published in npj Climate Action, the paper investigates how Blackpool – a local authority with some of the UK’s highest indicators of socio-economic disadvantage – has managed to produce ambitious and high-quality climate policy.
Through interviews and document reviews, Gaffney identifies a cross-party, cross-department coalition of council officers, elected representatives and local actors who worked together to translate Blackpool’s 2019 “climate emergency” declaration into a concrete action plan.
Leadership, framing and local agency
Crucially, the council reframed climate action as both a climate justice issue and a pathway to economic regeneration. Interviewees repeatedly linked climate policy to broader goals of post-industrial renewal and place-making.
Rather than viewing their limited resources as constraints, local leaders treated them as a call to creative agency. The paper describes how “policy entrepreneurs” within and around the council accelerated progress by identifying windows of opportunity, building broad internal support, and sourcing external funding.
By forging alliances across party lines and sectors, Blackpool’s leadership demonstrated that a strong local commitment and a clear sense of purpose can overcome structural challenges.
Implications for climate action nationwide
This case study is particularly timely as UK local authorities are increasingly recognised as critical players in climate delivery. Nationally, around one third of emissions fall within sectors that are directly shaped or influenced by local practice, policy or partnerships.
Blackpool’s experience undermines the assumption that climate leadership must come from affluent or urban centres. Instead, it shows that place-based leadership, inclusive framing, and strategic coalition-building can make meaningful progress possible – even under unfavourable conditions.
Further research should explore whether this could be supported or replicated elsewhere, and help speed up climate action in areas where it is least expected.
