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Empowering communities to make lasting change


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Matthew Davis

Head of Programme and Engagement

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The Pride in Place Strategy, announced by MHCLG with £5bn of funding direct to neighbourhood-level partnerships, is a key policy response from government to the existential threat of populism and divisive narratives about community cohesion.

The headline idea of ‘Pride in Place’ has a chequered history in recent years; it was at the centre of the previous government’s Levelling Up strategy and is particularly difficult to measure, with a range of different meanings for different groups. 

While pride in place may be a useful political narrative, the policy is really about local renewal and dealing directly with the loss of community infrastructure and local services in many neighbourhoods.  Nearly 1 in 3 people (29%) say their local area has become a worse place to live over the past two years, according to the Community Life Survey.

The direct line from austerity to this urgent need for renewal is clear. The decline of local facilities and services can be measured by the numbers - nearly 300 public libraries closed from 2010 to 2023, over 1,200 youth centres have shut in that time, and 200 public swimming pools have shut since 2020 alone. Typically, the closure rates are higher in more deprived areas.

169 deprived neighbourhoods will receive £20m over 10 years to deliver a shared local vision for their area. The funding will go to areas with the highest levels of deprivation and lack of civic assets, local services and access to job markets.

Enabling communities to build civic assets is vital, as a range of research shows infrastructure and deprivation are closely linked. These spaces allow people to meet, shape local issues, and create lasting social and economic value; neighbourhoods with these assets and engaged communities made greater progress in reducing deprivation under the New Deal for Communities programme in the late 1990s.

The need to support places with a historic lack of local infrastructure and investment is a political reality as much as a social and economic one. Between 2011 and 2021 employment rates fell in the UK but the most deprived neighbourhoods bore the hardest impact, with the average employment rate falling to 46.1%. The government’s response to the need for growth has been anchored into the UK’s Industrial Strategy which has been rightly welcomed by mayors and local leaders as a coordinated approach to develop a compelling case for UK PLC. However, its focus on competitive advantage sectors risks overlooking foundational ones like retail, hospitality and health, which remain key to local vitality and employ the majority of people in many areas. This is a live dynamic for mayors in making devolution real, so that everyone can identify what’s in it for them. 

Critical neighbourhood-level governance

The UK’s historic lack of imagination and support to empower local communities is clear. The familiar line that the UK is the most centralised nation in Europe was oft-quoted at Labour party conference panels this year. While over half of people believe that their community pulls together to make a difference in the area, most (77%) feel unable to influence the political and service decisions that are made about their place. So, just as significant as the Pride in Place funding is the impetus that the programme can give to regenerate the foundations of place-based partnership and community empowerment and organisation.

Alongside the Pride in Place funding, Neighbourhood Boards will represent their communities in developing shared visions and 10-year investment plans. Civil servants at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have clearly listened to lessons from previous capital funding programmes which often lacked the local resource and agency to realise transformative projects.  It is a chicken-and-egg challenge: how to drive change in deprived neighbourhoods starting from low social capital and connectivity.

With capacity funding and guidelines that make diverse participation a prerequisite, the Pride in Place programme addresses part of this challenge – but there is also some unlearning to do. The previous government’s programme, the Long Term Plan for Towns, also mandated Town Board structures but research by the Institute of Place Management in 2024 found that the early iterations of these were less than representative. 96% were chaired by men; a case perhaps of the usual suspects taking their seats, rather than those with lived experience which we really need shaping local development and services.

Connecting the local to all levels

Excellent local leadership cannot work in isolation, particularly if the goal goes beyond physical regeneration to supporting place-based growth and new economic opportunities for the local community. The places that have been selected for this latest funding include neighbourhoods that have become isolated from growth in the nearest cities – low on civic assets and employment opportunities despite in some cases being within the boundaries of mass transit systems and represented by Established Strategic Authorities as well as the local council. Areas like Harpurhey in Manchester or Speke in Liverpool challenge the idea that city-region growth automatically benefits nearby neighbourhoods.

To shift the dial here requires the coordination of civic renewal, with housing, education, skills and health – bringing in all levels of government in mature partnership; it is what will be required if the £2m per year awarded to each area is going to achieve a multiplier affect well beyond 2035. It is critical that we don’t think of this as a zero sum game at the regional level but a crucial test, of how this well-resourced and strategic neighbourhood governance can support regional growth from the bottom up.

Supporting neighbourhoods to drive their own renewal is positive, but government cannot simply step back and check in only at funding reviews or the programme’s end.  National and regional government must be around the table too, establishing links to the high street level that will endure beyond time bound funding pots. The incentives for our fast-changing politics are clear; a public that understands how devolution works for them and are empowered as custodians of place.
 

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Photo by Benjamin Elliott on Unsplash