Aaron Newbury found a community plagued by crime, drugs and a lack of jobs.
It’s a cold and wet day in the Bedfordshire town that has been branded year after year as one of the worst places to live in Britain. But visiting this beleaguered town just north of London reveals a community desperate for investment, and divided about whether or not a multi-billion pound regeneration project can turn things around.
The Daily Express travelled to Luton to hear for ourselves locals’ grave concerns over crime, drugs and a lack of jobs. What we found was a tale of two Lutons, residents struggling with crime and joblessness alongside council chiefs optimistic that the town is finally getting the investment it needs after years of neglect.
Robert Brodie, a lifelong resident, summed up the frustration felt by many when he told us: “We need to see more money going into the right places.” Standing outside one of the shopping centres in the heart of the town, he spoke about the crime levels in the area, explaining “they’ve got security outside Greggs now” to stop people robbing the bakery.
Retired himself, he complained that a lack of jobs in the area was leaving people feeling left behind. No opportunities, Mr Brodie argued, meant that people just wouldn’t move to the area anymore, locking the place into decline. Edmund Dohwe, 43, was even more blunt about how residents feel. “We feel abandoned,” he said, sitting in his garage on a housing estate. “Since the plant closed [Vauxhall’s van-making plant closed last April] there are no jobs.”
Mr Dohwe, somewhat poetically, likened the town to a plant – “if you do not water it, it dies”.
Another woman from the estate, who would not give her name, painted an even bleaker picture. “There’s just so much crime, it feels hopeless,” she said. She tells us she no longer feels safe walking the estate at night, and would not allow her kids to do so alone.
But local Labour councillor James Taylor, who oversees the town’s ambitious development plan, hit back at critics. “I’m sick of people talking the place down,” he said. “Luton has its problems, sure, but finally we have the investment we need to get it back on its feet. We’ve had 14 years of underinvestment from the Tories. Now we have more than a billion to reinvest in the town.”
The investment Cllr Taylor refers to is staggering in scale.
Luton Council has drawn up a Town Centre Masterplan to guide how the area will change over the next 20 to 30 years, responding to shifts in how people live, socialise, shop and work. Changes are already underway, and the works can be seen across the town. At Hat Gardens, the River Lea has been opened up, creating a spot where the council has held events year-round, including an open-air cinema screening live sport and films.
Security is now needed outside Greggs (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Construction has also started at Power Court, which is to serve as the new home of Luton Town Football Club. The development will see a 25,000-capacity stadium built alongside a hotel, music venue, and more public spaces.
It’ll also see some 1,200 new apartments built, and a range of new shops. In total some £1.7billion of public and private investment has been promised to revitalise a town that has constantly appeared on lists – and even at the top of lists – of the worst places to live in the UK.
And the local authority insists it is taking action on crime. In 2024 it set up a Town Centre Task Force, which partners with local charities and the police to reduce criminal activity. But whether these ambitious plans can overcome decades of decline and rekindle the pride to a town that feels forgotten remains to be seen.
For residents like Robert Brodie and Edmund Dohwe, the proof will be in the delivery. Security guards outside Greggs and empty factories tell their own story about the challenges ahead. The question is whether Luton’s multi-billion pound regeneration can bridge the gap between council optimism and resident despair – or whether this will be another false dawn for one of Britain’s struggling towns.
