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My former leader, Sir Stephen Houghton, often reminded me that while there are seven million people who live in cities, outside London, there are 18 million who live in towns.That has stayed with me and shaped my belief that public policy must respond to the needs of towns like Barnsley, as well as our cities.Barnsley, with a population of about 250,000, is itself a borough of towns, Barnsley being the biggest. Each of these towns has been shaped by its industrial past and in particular the mining industry. With the collapse of mining towards the end of the last century, it is a classic example of places that have felt left behind.Despite a significant jobs revival in recent years, including growth in logistics employers and a growing digital sector reflected in our recent Tech Town status, Barnsley still faces deep-seated structural challenges. Around 40,000 residents are economically inactive, of whom nearly 33% are long-term sick.Despite recent improvements, healthy life expectancy remains well below the national average, at around 55.2 years for men and 55.3 years for women. In addition, 9.5% of working age adults have no formal qualifications, compared with 6.6% nationally, and almost a third of children under 16 live in relative low-income families.As a borough of dispersed communities, our residents also face significant public transport challenges which can be more akin to rural communities than the experiences in our cities.Recent governments have each had their different ways of addressing this. From Tony Blair's New Deal for Communities through to initiatives such as the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth Fund, successive governments have sought to support regeneration and economic growth in disadvantaged areas.Under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, these ambitions were brought together for the levelling up agenda.Barnsley benefited from a successful £10.2m Levelling Up Fund bid, investing in facilities for young people in the town centre. More recently, we were awarded £20m over 10 years through the Towns Fund, now renamed Pride in Place.But when you consider what Barnsley lost when the mines closed, with 20,000 mining jobs and a further 20,000 ancillary jobs disappearing from the local economy, the current scale of investment starts to look very small.The closures left behind high unemployment, a fragile economy and communities facing a recovery challenge that no single funding programme could realistically address.These investments are welcome, but they are just a drop in the ocean compared with what is required.The transformation of Barnsley town centre, which now attracts footfall of more than nine million a year, is widely recognised as an exemplar of how to make a town centre successful.However, it cost more than £200m and was funded from a mix of sources, including external grants, funding from the combined authority and the council's own resources.The test now is whether this agenda can move beyond short-term funding pots and give places like Barnsley the long-term certainty, flexibility and scale of investment needed to deliver real change. Barnsley has shown what can be achieved when local ambition is matched with resources, partnership and a clear vision for place.Its success has come from creating a genuinely mixed-use destination, bringing together community assets such as the library, the Glass Works Square and improved public realm alongside public services such as Health on the High Street, a thriving market and a stronger retail, leisure and hospitality offer.Financial prudence over many years meant that the council had good levels of reserves and was financially resilient enough to do the borrowing, but not all councils are in this position and we have five other towns in Barnsley which would need similar levels of investment to be truly repurposed.This would be a challenge for any government and certainly one in the current era where public sector resources are particularly squeezed.The other question is how we rewire the economy in a way that draws private sector resources into left-behind places. This is partly a challenge to the orthodoxy that investment in cities will flow through to towns, when the reality can be that the more cities prosper, the more towns can feel left behind.It is also about creating a more balanced economy that tackles overheating in London and the South East, while enabling the North and other regions to prosper.Recent pronouncements from Prime Minister Andy Burnham are very welcome. Through the Government's Rewiring the State agenda, Burnham has set out that economic growth and public service reform are best achieved by trusting local leaders and devolving power, funding and accountability away from Whitehall and into communities.The commitment to a ‘devolution by default' approach, alongside greater powers over skills, transport, housing and employment support, reflects a growing recognition that local areas are often best placed to understand their challenges and opportunities.For places like Barnsley, that have often felt left behind, this is an opportunity to secure greater local influence over the decisions that affect our residents, while building on our track record of collaboration across South Yorkshire to drive inclusive growth and improve public services across the region.The test now is whether this agenda can move beyond short-term funding pots and give places like Barnsley the long-term certainty, flexibility and scale of investment needed to deliver real change. Barnsley has shown what can be achieved when local ambition is matched with resources, partnership and a clear vision for place.With the right powers and sustained investment, towns like ours have a crucial role to play in driving national growth, reducing inequality and building a more balanced economy.Sarah Norman is chief executive of Barnsley MBC

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PLACE-MAKING

Economic rewiring must also benefit towns

By Sarah Norman | 26 August 2026

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