Many communities feel disempowered. After years of austerity, and weakening local infrastructure, people are losing faith in government’s ability to make things better. While levels of trust are relatively high in wealthier areas, they are deeply negative in the poorest. People report losing valued amenities (libraries, pubs, pools, high‑street banks), worsening local environments and heightened loneliness. Many feel shut out of decision‑making. While half of all adults want a say in local decisions, fewer than a quarter think they have it. And this is driving deep political discontent.
The government’s Pride in Place programme aims to tackle this by targeting funds at the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Unlike previous programmes where short-term funds were allocated through competitive bidding and final decisions were made in Whitehall, this programme will provide neighbourhood‑led boards with long-term flexible funding. They can then plan and decide what matters most: and how to spend the money to improve the neighbourhood.
The government has committed £5bn over ten years to the programme, which has three core objectives:
- Building stronger communities: investing in places and relationships that foster belonging, safety and cohesion.
- Creating thriving places: supporting vibrant high streets, good local amenities and infrastructure.
- Empowering people to take back control: give communities real influence and tools to shape their future.
This forms part of the government plans to devolve power from Whitehall. Strategic Authorities, usually led by a mayor, will have significant budgets and powers, and local councils will have more flexibility and stability via a larger settlement and a path to stable, long-term funding.
Pride in Place
The Pride in Place programme has two elements. The first is the Impact Fund, given to up to 95 local authorities to produce visible, near‑term improvements, while the larger, long‑term programme takes root. Each Impact Fund council will get £1.5m over two years to improve community spaces, public spaces and high streets.
The main Pride in Place programme will provide up to £20m over ten years to 250 “hyper‑local” neighbourhoods of around 10,000 people each. Unlike previous schemes, where areas were chosen by politicians, these are identified independently using data on deprivation and community need from the Office of National Statistics.
In each area, a Neighbourhood Board will be created, with an independent chair, and representatives of residents, local businesses and civil society. Each Board will work with its local authority to choose priorities, from town‑square upgrades and youth clubs to homelessness support, child poverty services, cohesion programmes and local culture or sport.
Pride in the East
Seventeen areas in the eastern region are included in the programme.
The Impact Fund is providing £1.5m each to
Great Yarmouth
Peterborough
Luton
Thurrock
Ipswich
Fenland
The Pride in Place programme will fund with up to £20m each over 10 years to:
| Basildon | Chalvedon, and Laindon Central |
| Colchester | Greenstead |
| East Suffolk | Lowestoft Central, and Felixstowe West |
| Norwich | Bowthorpe & West Earlham, and Heartsease & Pilling Park |
| Peterborough | Orton Malbourne & Goldhay, and Paston |
| Southend | Shoeburyness |
| West Suffolk | Lakenheath |
Related initiatives
The Pride in Place objectives are to be supported by a range of other government initiatives.
Policing
A Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee restores patrols in town centres and assigns named, contactable officers for every neighbourhood. Each force is appointing an anti‑social behaviour (ASB) lead, and co‑producing an ASB Action Plan with communities. They are required to track and report on outcomes like perceptions of safety. New legislation will raise fines for breaches of local public space orders, enhance powers to seize nuisance vehicles and end “effective immunity” for shop theft under £200.
Planning
There is to be clearer planning policy to prioritise reuse of vacant sites, build homes in accessible locations and adapt town centres. Compulsory purchase rules are being streamlined, with fairer compensation to speed up regeneration of empty properties. Unfair “upwards‑only rent review” clauses in commercial leases will be banned, allowing rents to fall when markets weaken. Business rates will be reformed, with lower rates for smaller high‑street properties. Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) will be expanded, and a wider use of High Street Rental Auctions will compel landlords of long‑term empty shops to accept an auctioned tenant, helping community groups and small businesses get space at viable rents. Councils will have new powers to manage concentration of gambling premises. There will be more funding for public toilets.
Community spaces, connections and culture
The Impact Fund will support refurbishing and community ownership of valued buildings (churches, youth clubs, social clubs), improving parks and public realm (seating, signage, public art), and boosting footfall for local businesses. A new £3m Common Ground Resilience Fund will provide capital funding to support projects which bring people from different backgrounds together. At least £400m will be available for grassroots sporting facilities, and partnerships with clubs and leagues to use trusted venues as community hubs.
Cleaning up and caring for places
To help improve local environments and foster pride in local areas, there will be new statutory enforcement guidance on littering and fly‑tipping, a refreshed Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse, a practical community clean‑up toolkit, and updated guidance on planning powers to tackle derelict or untidy premises.
How it fits together
The Pride in Place strategy is at the centre of a raft of government initiatives designed to improve people’s quality of life, especially in the most disadvantaged areas. It aims to overcome the problems faced by previous ‘levelling up’ schemes: short-term funding, political interference and centralisation of decision making in Whitehall.
The government hopes that, by 2029, people in the most deprived communities will have seen a material improvement in their neighbourhoods. That would be very good for some of the poorest people in Britain, as well as the fortunes of an embattled Labour Party.
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