As part of its Pride in Place Strategy, the Government has announced that 95 local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales will each recieve £1.5 million for investing in spaces and places over 18 months. Here we explain more about how this money available through the ‘Impact Fund’ can be invested and try to seperate the rhetoric from the reality.
Targeting spaces and places
The funding to support the development of shared spaces, revitalise local high streets and improve public spaces, needs to targeted in one or more of three possible ways:
- Community spaces: Investing in community facilities by refurbishing or taking ownership of underused but valued buildings to create welcoming places for connection, support and shared activity.
- Public spaces: Enhancing the physical environment by improvements to green areas, play and leisure facilities, and thoughtful design features such as seating, signage and public art to make spaces more inclusive and inviting.
- High street and town centre revitalisation: Revitalising high streets by improvements to buildings, streets and public spaces to increase footfall, help small businesses thrive and create opportunities for social and cultural activity.
There is no requirement for local authorities to meet all of the objectives for investing in spaces and places or spend a specific percentage of funding on any objective. One building in one community could absorb all the cash, or access improvements could be spread across a range of places.
Local engagement
The Pride in Place Strategy states that programme will be locally-led and will support improvements that reflect the pride and potential of each place. The stated intent to encourage locally-grounded change and “recognising the value of lived experience and the connections people have to the places they care about”, will delivered by:
- MPs playing an important role in representing the views of, and working for, their constituents. Local authorities must engage with local MPs on how the funding is spent. In Scotland and Wales, members of the Scottish Parliament and Members of the Senedd should also be engaged.
- Local authorities are also asked to engage with and seek support from a wider range of local stakeholders to identify priorities and deliver the Pride in Place Impact Fund. Local authorities can use an existing group or engagement channel or create a new group or channel if appropriate.
Your community may have a great idea, though you’ve got to quickly convince the MP and council that it would be well-received and make a great photo opportunity!
Our sense is that out of necessity, this first tranche of funding for 2025-26 has to be allocated in a flurry and that the level of community engagement is likely to be more limited than would be ideal. Our guidance is that through clear communications and community engagement, councils should be managing current expectations and setting-out measures for greater involvement in determining priorities and developing community-led projects in 2026-27. Only in this way can we expect the programme’s ambitions for boosting pride in place to be met.
Funding
Each place will receive £1.5 million for investing in spaces and places over two years (actually 18 months) with the stated intention of enabling immediate work to make sure that the places and spaces valued by communities are improved as part of boosting pride in place for their local areas.
The allocation is to be spent over 2025-26 and 2026-27. Funding is broken down equally across the two years, 50% in 2025-26 and 50% in 2026-27. The Pride in Place Impact Fund allocation is 100% capital funding.
Local authorities will act as the accountable body for the Pride in Place Impact Fund and funding may be spent on investing in spaces and places anywhere in the local authority area, “whilst being mindful of the importance of supporting communities most in need“.
Qualifying areas
The total programme of 95 places is apportioned: England 64; Scotland 8; Wales 23. Below is a full list of qualifying places. More details can be found in the Impact Fund methodology note.
London: #Barking-and-Dagenham #Brent #Croydon #Enfield #Haringey #Hounslow #Newham
South East: #Gravesham #Hastings #Medway #Portsmouth #Slough #Southampton #Swale #Thanet
East of England: #Fenland #Great Yarmouth #Ipswich #Luton #Peterborough #Thurrock
East Midlands: #Ashfield #Boston #Derby #Leicester #Mansfield #North-East-Lincolnshire #Nottingham
West Midlands: #Birmingham #Coventry #Nuneaton-and-Bedworth #Sandwell #Stoke-on-Trent #Walsall #Wolverhampton
Yorkshire and the Humber: #Barnsley #Bradford #Doncaster #Kingston-upon-Hull #Rotherham #Wakefield
North West: #Blackburn with Darwen #Blackpool #Bolton #Burnley #Halton #Hyndburn #Knowsley #Liverpool #Manchester #Oldham #Pendle #Preston #Rochdale #Salford #St.-Helens #Tameside #Wigan
North East: #Gateshead #Hartlepool #Middlesbrough #Newcastle-upon -Tyne #South-Tyneside #Sunderland
Scotland: #Glasgow #West Dunbartonshire #North-Ayrshire #Dundee #North-Lanarkshire #Inverclyde #East-Ayrshire
Wales: #Blaenau-Gwent #Bridgend #Caerphilly #Cardiff #Carmarthenshire #Ceredigion #Conwy #Denbighshire #Flintshire #Gwynedd #Isle-of-Anglesey #Merthyr-Tydfil #Monmouthshire #Neath-Port-Talbot #Newport #Pembrokeshire #Powys #Rhondda-Cynon-Taf #Swansea #Vale-of-Glamorgan #Torfaen #Wrexham
This funding is seperate to the annoncement of 146 neighbourhoods that will receive £20million over 10 years, as explained in our full guide to the Pride in Place Programme.
