On a bleak and drizzly day in the Bedfordshire town repeatedly dubbed one of Britain's worst places to live, one visit revealed a community crying out for investment and split over whether a multi-billion pound regeneration scheme can save it.

The Daily Express went to Luton to hear first-hand residents' serious worries about crime, drugs and the job market. What came out was a story of two Lutons – locals dealing with criminality and unemployment sitting alongside council leaders who believe the town is finally receiving much-needed investment after prolonged neglect.

Robert Brodie, who has lived in Luton all his life, captured the frustration many feel when he said: "We need to see more money going into the right places."

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Outside one of the shopping centres in the town centre, he discussed crime rates in the vicinity, pointing out "they've got security outside Greggs now" to prevent thefts from the bakery.

Now retired, he said that the lack of employment opportunities were making people feel abandoned. Without jobs, Mr Brodie said, nobody would move to the area anymore, trapping it in a downward spiral.

Edmund Dohwe, 43, was even more direct about how locals feel. "We feel abandoned," he said, sitting in his garage on a housing estate.

"Since the plant closed [Vauxhall's van-making plant shut last April] there are no jobs."

Mr Dohwe described the town as a plant - "if you do not water it, it dies".

Another resident of the estate, who chose to remain anonymous, painted an even grimmer picture. "There's just so much crime, it feels hopeless," she said.

She confessed that she no longer feels safe wandering the estate after dark and wouldn't let her children do it alone.

However, local Labour councillor James Taylor, who is responsible for the town's ambitious redevelopment plan, strongly defended his turf. "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 Councillor Taylor refers to is huge. Luton Council has come up with a Town Centre Masterplan to steer the transformation of the area over the next two to three decades, adapting to evolving lifestyles, social habits, shopping trends and work patterns. Changes are already in motion, with visible progress throughout the town.

At Hat Gardens, the River Lea has been unveiled, providing a venue for year-round council events, including open-air cinema screenings of live sports and films. Construction has also began at Power Court, set to become the new ground for Luton Town Football Club. The project will feature a 25,000-seat stadium, a hotel, a music venue, and additional public spaces.

The scheme will also deliver around 1,200 new flats, alongside a variety of new shops. Altogether, approximately £1.7billion in public and private funding has been pledged to breathe new life into a town that has repeatedly featured on – and even topped – lists of Britain's worst places to live.

The local authority says it's tackling crime head-on. In 2024, it established a Town Centre Task Force, working alongside local charities and police to curb criminal behaviour.

But whether these bold proposals can reverse decades of deterioration and restore pride to a community that feels abandoned is still unclear. For locals like Robert Brodie and Edmund Dohwe, the real test lies in how it pans out. Security personnel stationed outside Greggs and rundown industrial sites paint their own picture of the obstacles lying ahead.

The main question is whether Luton's multi-billion pound transformation can narrow the divide between council confidence and resident unhappiness – or if this represents yet another false start for one of Britain's struggling towns.