If BAE Systems is the measure of Barrow’s fortunes then things should be looking bright.

The yard is currently engaged in building the final two of seven Astute-class nuclear submarines for the Royal Navy. In September 2021, the Ministry of Defence awarded BAE Systems an £85m contract to support early design and concept work on the Royal Navy’s next generation of submarines. A further £31bn is set to be invested in delivering four Dreadnought class submarines with the first due to enter service in the early 2030s.
The shipyard is also playing a key role in AUKUS, a project to equip Australia with its first fleet of nuclear subs. BAE intends to grow its workforce from 12,000 to 17,000 over the next 10 to 15 years.
Alongside this, Barrow has been awarded £16m from the government’s Levelling Up fund which will be spent on regenerating the town centre. This is in addition to £25m from the Towns Fund, supporting a raft of projects including a proposed new University of Cumbria campus on Barrow Island and the development of more than 800 homes at the Marina Village site near BAE Systems.
BAE is keenly aware that its mutual existence with Barrow cuts both ways and, as future workforce director Janet Garner says, it needs the town to be as attractive a place to live as possible.
“We started looking at what needs to be true not just for us as a business, but in the town, for us to do more, do it quicker, be more productive, more effective,” she said.” In a bid to inject some life into the town centre, BAE bought 80,000 square feet of retail space in Portland Walk in January last year, including the Debenhams site.
While the former department store is being turned into a training hub for the many apprentices and graduates BAE will require, the rest of the space is already being used to showcase employers in the area. Janet says BAE’s presence has already seen an increase in footfall, with much more to come when as many as 700 trainees a day begin using the training hub, which it is hoped will be open by early 2026. BAE is also working with the government, Westmorland and Furness Council and other businesses in a partnership with the working title of Team Barrow, which is seeking another injection of funding to support development and regeneration.