AI automation in Lytham St Annes and Kirkham.
Fylde had 3,570 businesses in 2026, and 88.2% of them employ fewer than ten people.Source [1] Manufacturing made up 23.3% of Fylde's 43,000 employee jobs in 2024, over three times the British share of 7.3%. Professional, scientific and technical work made up 20.9%, more than double the British share of 9.3%.Source [1]
We cover all 47 towns and villages in the district. Most of what we build is delivered remotely, so the practical question is not how far you are from us. It is whether we understand the way your trade actually works. We will come out if it helps.
Written by Sami (Sam) Swain. Local facts checked 9 October 2026.
What is happening in Fylde
Where the work is
- Warton Enterprise Zone is a 75 hectare site in Fylde next to BAE Systems, home to its Military Air and Information business.Source [2]
- The University of Lancashire's Altitude facility at Warton is one of the UK's largest indoor test spaces for uncrewed and space technology.Source [2]
- 55% of the 144 hectare Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone lies in Fylde.Source [3]
Town centres
- Kirkham Futures used £6.29 million from the Future High Streets Fund and £3.27 million of heritage funding to restore more than 25 shopfronts and properties. Its final works were due to finish by March 2025.Source [4]
- Fylde's 2025/26 UK Shared Prosperity Fund programme put £857,692 into the borough, including three completed phases of the St Annes Masterplan.Source [5]
Support for businesses
- Invest in Fylde gives free advice on business planning, funding, premises and skills. Email invest@fylde.gov.uk.Source [5]
- Fylde Council's business page also points firms to the North West Aerospace Alliance and to Boost.Source [6]
Getting around
- Warton is reached by the new £200 million Preston Western Distributor and Edith Rigby Way.Source [2]
Industries that matter in Fylde
These sectors employ a bigger share of people here than they do across Great Britain, so they are where automation usually earns its keep first.
Manufacturing and engineering
Manufacturing is 23.3% of employee jobs against 7.3% in Great Britain.Source [1]
AI for manufacturingAccountants and professional services
Professional, scientific and technical work is 20.9% of employee jobs against 9.3%.Source [1]
AI for professional servicesHospitality and tourism
Accommodation and food is 10.5% of employee jobs against 7.8%.Source [1]
AI for hospitalityHelp across Lancashire
- Boost is Lancashire's business growth hub. Its Business Support Helpdesk on 0800 488 0057 is open to every Lancashire business and to anyone planning to start one. Growth Lancashire runs the helpdesk on Boost's behalf.Source [7]
- Made Smarter North West helps small and medium manufacturing and engineering firms adopt digital technology. Firms with 249 staff or fewer and a turnover under £36 million, or a balance sheet under £18 million, can apply. It offers up to 50% match funding to a maximum of £20,000 for equipment and specialist advice, a leadership programme and funded digital internships worth up to £4,035. Boost is one of its delivery partners.Source [8]Source [9] Read our Made Smarter North West guide
- The Lancashire Combined County Authority's Growth Plan, published in October 2025, names digital and artificial intelligence as one of five priority sectors for the county.Source [10]Source [11]
Grants and funded training that are open now are on our funding page.
Main towns in Fylde
St Annes-on-the-Sea
Town, population 25,743, FY8
Founded as a seaside resort in the 1870s. Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club regularly hosts The Open, alongside St Annes Old Links.
Kirkham
Town, population 7,883, PR4
Former sailcloth and cotton weaving town with eleven mills at its peak and looms running until 2003. HMP Kirkham open prison occupies a former RAF site. Its high street was regenerated through the Kirkham Futures scheme.
Freckleton
Village, population 6,045, PR4
Once a shipbuilding port producing rope and sailcloth. Warton Aerodrome's runway extends into the parish and BAE Systems is the dominant employer.
Wesham
Town, population 3,584, PR4
Fox's Biscuits' Wesham bakery, operating since 1957 and home of the Rocky bar, is the largest employer. The town also has Bradkirk Business Park and Mill Farm Sports Village, home of AFC Fylde.
Lytham
Town, FY8
Older of the two towns in Lytham St Annes. Lytham Green Drive Golf Club (1913) and an affluent base with earnings among the highest in the North of England.
Villages and smaller places we also cover
These are covered on the same terms. They are listed here rather than given a page each, because a page that only restates the district page helps nobody.
Ansdell
Home to Lytham St Annes High School, the largest school in Lancashire with around 1,500 pupils, and Fylde Rugby Club at Woodlands Memorial Ground.
Ballam
Recently developed Coppice Business Park.
Bolton Houses
Bryning
Gives its name to the Bryning-with-Warton civil parish, population 3,596 in 2011.
Clifton
Corner Row
Dowbridge
Elswick
Former flax and cotton handloom weaving village, now a dormitory village commuting to Preston, Blackpool and Poulton. Known for Bonds of Elswick ice cream parlour.
Esprick
Fairhaven
Fairhaven Golf Club and Fairhaven Lake, an important wildfowl habitat, sit on the seaward side of the railway.
Great Plumpton
Greenhalgh
Lead hamlet of Greenhalgh-with-Thistleton (439 residents in 2011). The surrounding area is agricultural land.
Hall Cross
Heyhouses
The original hamlet that pre-dated the planned resort of St Annes-on-the-Sea. Now a Fylde ward covering inland St Annes.
Higher Ballam
One of the seven named hamlets of Westby-with-Plumptons. Agricultural land on the Lytham fringe.
Kellamergh
Small hamlet within Bryning-with-Warton parish.
Kilnhouse
Fylde ward covering eastern St Annes towards the M55 and Blackpool Airport approach
Larbreck
Little Eccleston
Cartford Bridge, an unusual surviving toll bridge over the River Wyre, and the Cartford Inn stand at the village edge.
Little Plumpton
Site of Cuadrilla Resources' shale gas fracking operations, which drew community compensation and an estimated £6-8m in policing costs in 2017-18.
Little Singleton
Small area north of Singleton bordering the River Wyre.
Lower Ballam
Second of the paired Ballam hamlets in Westby-with-Plumptons, nearer the Ribble mosses
Medlar
Rural half of the Medlar-with-Wesham civil parish.
Moor Side
Moss Side
Moss Side railway station, reopened in 1983, serves the Preston to Blackpool South line.
Mythop
Farming hamlet of about 677 acres in Weeton-with-Preese parish, separated from Weeton by mossland. Not recognised in the parish name.
Newton-with-Clifton
Parish covering Clifton, Dowbridge, Newton-with-Scales and Salwick.
Newton-with-Scales
Peel
Whitehills Business Park at junction 4 of the M55 hosts over 100 businesses including NS&I, Glasdon, NST Travel Group, Hargreave Hale and Napthens.
Preese
Preese Hall Farm was the site of the first hydraulic fracturing trial in the United Kingdom, by Cuadrilla Resources from 2011.
Ribby
Paired with Wrea Green in the Ribby-with-Wrea civil parish (1,489 residents).
Roseacre
Cuadrilla's Roseacre Wood fracking application was refused by the Secretary of State in February 2019 on highway safety grounds.
Salwick
Dominated by the Springfields nuclear fuel manufacturing plant operated by Westinghouse Electric Company.
Singleton
Estate village around Singleton Hall, an 1855 Gothic mansion now converted to residences. The Gillow furniture business had 18th century roots here.
Staining
Grade II listed Staining Windmill, probably built in the late 18th century, is the village landmark.
Thistleton
Treales
Lead village of the Treales, Roseacre and Wharles parish, 492 residents in 2011.
Warton
Warton Aerodrome and the BAE Systems Military Air & Information aircraft manufacturing plant form the area's main employment hub.
Weeton
Weeton Barracks, an active army camp on a former RAF site, lies about a mile from the village centre.
Westby
Lead settlement of Westby-with-Plumptons (1,205 residents). St Anne's Catholic Church of 1860 was designed by E. W. Pugin.
Wharles
Hosts the annual Fylde Vintage and Farm Show in a field beside the M55.
Wrea Green
Surrounds the largest village green in Lancashire with its duck pond, 'The Dub'. Many residents work at BAE Systems Warton, and the village has won Lancashire's Best Kept Village award 15 times.
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Sources
We opened and read every source below on 9 October 2026. If one has changed since, the source is right and this page is out of date, so please tell us.
- 1. ONS via Nomis, Labour market profile, Fylde (BRES 2024 employee jobs, UK Business Counts 2026).
- 2. Invest in Lancashire, Warton Enterprise Zone.
- 3. Fylde Council, Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone masterplan.
- 4. Fylde Council, Fylde Council approves final capital expenditure for Kirkham Futures, 7 November 2024.
- 5. Fylde Council, Fylde's UKSPF legacy and the business support that's here to stay, 25 May 2026.
- 6. Fylde Council, Business advice and support.
- 7. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Business Support Helpdesk.
- 8. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, North West.
- 9. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, in my region.
- 10. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan maps over £20bn investment opportunity, 10 October 2025.
- 11. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan, sector priority 3, digital and AI, October 2025.