Ex-cabinet secretary takes town regeneration job

Simon Case said he was "delighted" to take on the "important role"

The former head of the civil service will lead a regeneration board tasked with the £200m transformation of a town.

Simon Case, the former Cabinet Secretary, has been appointed as the chair of the Team Barrow Delivery Board.

The group is managing a 10-year fund which was set up last year by the previous government to support the Cumbrian town as the home of nuclear submarine-building in the UK.

Case said Barrow was "critical to our national security" and was "delighted" to take up the "important role", which he had been doing on an interim basis.

"There's nowhere else in the country with the unique set of skills and supporting infrastructure required to deliver complex nuclear submarines," he added. "So it's vital we invest now to sustain this capability."

He said Barrow was a "fantastic town" but not "without its challenges".

"Our task is to address these, turn ambition into reality and help transform Barrow into a place where people choose to live, work and thrive," he said.

Case, who served four prime ministers, was the most senior official in government from September 2020 to December 2024 when he stepped down due to health grounds, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The cabinet secretary role involves advising the prime minister, leading implementation of the government's policies and managing other high-level civil servants.

'This means business'

Labour MP for Barrow and Furness Michelle Scrogham said she was "really pleased" by the appointment.

"To appoint someone of Simon's calibre shows that this government means business in its support for Team Barrow and the redevelopment of our area," she said.

In 2023, BAE, Britain's biggest defence firm, won a £3.95bn ($4.82bn) contract, to build a new generation of submarines.

It already employs more than 10,000 people in Barrow and at the time said the deal would lead to the recruitment of more than 5,000 workers at the site.

Approximately 900 homes need to be built in Barrow every year to cope with the town's expanding shipyard, according to BAE.