How Middleton’s revival could be grist to the mill for Britain’s struggling towns

Turnaround initiated by Andy Burnham and led by Steve Coogan could provide blueprint for other neglected areas

• Save high street by creating ‘level playing field’ with online rivals, Burnham urged

The former England footballer Paul Scholes and the actor Steve Coogan stare out from beside a fish and chip shop in Middleton, near Manchester. Looming over a mural of the pair – and the whole town – is an enormous former cotton mill that powered its economy a century ago.

The deafening looms and spindles of Warwick Mill fell silent decades ago, replaced in recent years by TikTok “urban explorers” who share videos of themselves crawling through its abandoned shell.