Barrow-in-Furness, the Cumbrian port town that builds the Royal Navy's nuclear submarines, has been named the unhappiest place in Britain, with residents describing entrenched poverty, drug addiction and physical decay. Charity worker Laura Gibney, 40, said: "The poverty here is really bad. Everybody's on crack cocaine, and there's nothing in Barrow for young people."
From industrial boom to 'company town'
Once home to the world's biggest steelworks and a major warship-building shipyard, Barrow was hit hard by deindustrialisation after the Second World War. It remains Britain's last "company town", dominated by the yard's monopoly on building nuclear submarines for the Royal Navy, now operated by BAE Systems. That military importance saw King Charles confer royal status on the Port of Barrow in September 2025.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) named Barrow the unhappiest place in Britain in 2014, and it ranked fourth in a league table of deaths from drink, drugs and suicide in 2024. In the same year, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged £220 million to reinvigorate the town centre, including thousands of new homes and improvements to health and education. Simon Case was appointed in early 2025 to chair Team Barrow, the public-private partnership overseeing the plan. But residents pointed to empty units and smashed shopfronts as evidence that little has changed for the better.
Divided views on BAE's role
The yard is both Barrow's lifeline and, some say, part of the problem. John Michael Murphy, 78, who worked in the old shipyard before retiring, said BAE had "done a world of good" by boosting employment, adding: "If it weren't for them, we'd be nothing." However, Jacqui Clark, 58, who works with charities supporting residents' mental health and housing needs, said BAE has "taken away from local businesses" by paying wages that high street retailers cannot match.
Clark told the Express: "You don't realise until you're actually working on the ground how bad the problem is here. People are homeless, they can't sustain tenancies, and landlords have turned most of the houses into HMOs because they can get more money from them."
Empty shops and a lost high street
Even with the yard's draw, many young workers choose not to live in Barrow itself. Declan Pugh, 29, commutes daily from nearby Millom along the single road out to the remote peninsula. He once came into the town "all the time", but shop closures and its "run down" appearance have put him off. "It's sad to see because it used to be a nice place to come for a day trip," he said. "There's a lot more empty units and a lot more vape shops and barbers, which we don't need."
Caroline Stewart, 31, agreed: "It definitely doesn't have the shops it used to. There was a Marks and Spencer and a Debenhams, and there isn't anymore. We used to come here just to wander around, but we wouldn't now." Ms Gibney recalled the town being a hub for nightlife and shopping when she was growing up, but said that era has passed. Mr Murphy noted that Barrow has become "very run down" and a "disgrace" over his lifetime. "Shopfronts aren't kept up, there are weeds, there's rubbish building up," he said. "The people here are lovely, but the way some of the town looks is disgusting."
Decline, drugs and insecurity
The town's remote location, a distant outpost in the Lake District region, was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Barrow experienced one of Britain's highest mortality rates. Its population has steadily dropped over the 30 years to 2022, and now sits at around 56,000, skewing older than the national average with almost 22% over the age of 65.
Flo Woods, 70, who moved to Barrow around 20 years ago, pointed to "empty buildings, windows getting smashed and boys on scooters flying up and down the street, nearly crashing into people". "It needs sorting out," she said. "I don't come in at all at night because it doesn't feel safe." Ms Gibney also noted that the town's "poverty and deprivation has gotten a lot worse over the last decade", adding that people are trapped in a "vicious cycle of reoffending because there's no other option for them".
Drug supply is a documented problem. Barrow has been a repeated target for "county lines" gangs, with the Merseyside-linked 'Jimmy line' dismantled in 2021 and a joint Cumbria Police and Greater Manchester Police operation leading to charges against four Barrow residents for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine in 2023. "It doesn't feel like there's investment for people," Ms Gibney said. "The council is spending money on redoing the roads and creating new bike lanes which nobody uses instead."
Loss of control and 'white elephants'
Many locals link the decline to a loss of control. Power now sits more than 30 miles away in Kendal, where Westmorland and Furness Council is based, into which Barrow was incorporated in 2023. Others trace the decline back to 1974, when the town was carved out of Lancashire and absorbed into the administrative county of Cumbria.
Nathan Holmes, a Reform UK member of Barrow Town Council elected in 2025, said residents feel "jaded" because of long-term "mishandling of finances" by elected officials. "The council has a long-standing habit of starting something then running out of money," he told the Express. "They talk about big projects like the Marina Village, which is meant to be a new waterfront neighbourhood, but nothing actually happens for decades. They run out of money and these schemes end up becoming white elephants." He also pointed to a former arts venue whose air conditioning caused a Legionnaires' disease outbreak in 2002, killing seven people, a market hall shut after an asbestos leak in February and a vacant, vandalised former tax office in the town centre.
"Crime is a bit of a mess at the moment," Mr Holmes said. "These teenage kids roam around at night and kick doors in and start fires. The McDonald's in town has a bouncer and the Greggs just put in a planning application to get roller shutters. There were two weed-busting operations recently in the space of a week." He said the town's image has slipped from a celebrated "Chicago of the North" to a settlement in the "armpit of England", and argued that dissatisfaction with traditional party rule helped Reform win three councillors in 2025 by-elections.
A future more secure than most
Barrow's future is, despite appearances, more secure than that of most struggling towns. It produces the navy's nuclear-powered Astute-class submarines and the new Dreadnought class, work described as a "critical contribution" to national security. It is also set to start production on the first AUKUS submarines as part of a deal between the UK, US and Australia next year. Team Barrow has published a 10-year strategic vision, "Barrow Rising", promising a "once in a lifetime" transformation of the town centre with Government backing. The Express has contacted Barrow Town Council, Westmorland and Furness Council, Cumbria Police and BAE Systems for comment.
