Pride in Place

Pride in Place is the government’s flagship communities programme. It will provide up to £20 million of funding and support for 284 communities across the UK over the next 10 years, with local Neighbourhood Boards responsible for shaping plans that reflect the priorities of local residents. At its core is the belief that residents can influence real change in the areas where they live when given the backing and support they need.

3ni is here to help councils and Neighbourhood Boards make Pride in Place real and effective by setting up genuine, resident‑led decision‑making and creating strong evidence that brings together data and local lived experience.

In this space, you’ll find our latest insight and think pieces, tools and resources to support you if you’re working in a Pride in Place area. We’ll be updating this page shortly with key learning from the Big Local programme of specific relevance to Pride in Place areas.

Turning ambition into action

We believe Pride in Place is, at its heart, a social programme: a long-term commitment to shift power so that people in some of the most overlooked neighbourhoods can shape real change where they live. It puts an unprecedented emphasis on putting local residents and communities in the driving seat of how the regeneration money is spent.

We’re optimistic about what Pride in Place can achieve, but we’re aware it won’t be easy. Communities that have experienced decades of reduced services and broken promises need proper support to take on these roles with confidence. If Pride in Place is to avoid the pitfalls of past regeneration programmes and build on the learning from Big Local, then investment in community capacity and foundational social infrastructure has to be seen as central, not supplementary. That’s how you build and sustain the social capital that strengthens communities, supports resilience and delivers lasting change that people can see and feel. Capacity building, skills development and long-term backing aren’t optional extras, they are the work.

We’ve been rolling up our sleeves with local authorities across the country to help turn the government’s Pride in Place ambitions into something real and meaningful. Over the next few years, our aim is to offer practical guidance on community-led regeneration and convene local government, Neighbourhood Boards and residents to learn from each other and solve shared challenges. Government has set the framework, but it’s together that we’ll bring Pride in Place to life. Let’s get to work.

Information about Pride in Place

We’ve pulled together the essential information about the programme. Think of it as your one-stop shop for all things Pride in Place.

Overview of the programme

Pride in Place is a long-term government programme that will provide up to £20 million of funding and support for each selected neighbourhood over a 10-year period. It is delivered locally through a Neighbourhood Board, which works with residents and partners to shape a neighbourhood plan focused on the improvements that matter most in that area.

The programme starts from a simple principle: local people are best placed to identify what needs to change, and to lead that change when they have the time, resources and support to do it well. It builds on the learning from Big Local, a resident-led funding programme that backed 150 communities across England to make decisions and invest over the long term.

Programme objectives

The government sets out three main objectives for Pride in Place: building stronger communities, creating thriving places and helping communities take back control of their own lives and areas.

Building stronger communities: This is about strengthening the social foundations of neighbourhood life, bringing people together, rebuilding connections and supporting safer, more cohesive communities. This includes:
- rebuilding relationships
- restoring a collective sense of belonging to their community
- bringing people together so they can feel proud of their area and safe in their neighbourhoods
Creating thriving places: This focuses on the quality of everyday local places, from high streets and town centres to the spaces and services people rely on. This includes:
- giving residents a stronger say in how neighbourhoods and high streets look and feel
- supporting places to shape services that are accessible, responsive and rooted in local needs
Help communities take back control: This is about shifting power so people have a real stake in decisions and more influence over what happens in their area and their lives. This includes:
- supporting children to have the best start in life
- helping adults access skills and opportunities (including new and emerging job markets and routes in self-employment)
- giving communities more say over how their local area is shaped

Ways of working

The Pride in Place programme is built on the principles of community power and local leadership, and its governance model is designed to reflect exactly that.

The Neighbourhood Board sits at the centre of decision‑making. It must have at least eight members, and at least 51% must live or work within the Pride in Place area, ensuring it remains a resident‑majority body. Among these members, there must be one elected representative and the local MP. The remaining seats may be filled by local residents, community leaders, and representatives from anchor organisations or businesses.

The Board is led by an independent chair, appointed by the local authority and approved jointly by the MP and the local authority. Once in post, the chair oversees the recruitment of the full Board, supported by both the MP and the local authority.

Once established, the Board is responsible for working with the community to co‑create a community plan. During this phase, the local authority’s role is primarily to provide secretariat support.

The programme also requires each Pride in Place area to have a dedicated local forum or structure through which residents can influence decisions affecting their neighbourhood. Membership of each forum should be tailored to the specific area and must include local residents. The programme does not prescribe how these forums should be formed, leaving the design and setup to the discretion of the Neighbourhood Board.

Timeline

The programme runs from 2026 to 2036 and is divided into three investment periods:

Period 1: 2026-27 financial year to 2029-30 financial year (4 Years)
Period 2: 2030-31 financial year to 2032-33 financial year (3 Years)
Period 3: 2033-33 financial year to 2035-36 financial year (3 Years)

At the end of year 3, the aim is for the Neighbourhood Boards to transfer to community-led organisations. MHCLG offers some flexibility around the timeframe, being aware that not all Pride in Place areas will have the same starting point and development.

Role of local authorities

Local authorities play a central role in the Pride in Place programme, working closely with Neighbourhood Boards across three main areas: fund management, advice and support and by acting as the accountable body.

Local authority role in fund management

Develop funding processes — Establish and embed appropriate financial controls and governance arrangements, working in partnership with the Board and the MP.
Empower the Board — Create mechanisms that enable the Board to lead a genuinely community‑driven vision for change.
Support the PiP Plan — Facilitate the development and delivery of the Pride in Place Plan, while recognising the Board as the primary decision‑making body.

Local authority role in advice and support

Legal duties guidance — Provide advice on statutory responsibilities, such as impact assessments.
Community engagement support — Help ensure engagement activities are inclusive, accessible, and meaningful.
Board member support — Assist Board members in navigating unfamiliar processes, requirements, and governance expectations.

Local authority role as accountable body

Local authorities also act as the accountable body for the programme. This includes ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements such as state aid, subsidy control, and public procurement rules. In the early stages of the programme, they may also provide secretariat support to help the Board establish itself and begin its work.

Role of Neighbourhoods Boards

Neighbourhood Boards are designed to be a decision-making body, rather than a delivery one. Importantly, their decision-making must be based on extensive and genuine engagement with the community. As such, they must:

give local people the power to decide how funding is spent, putting communities in charge of the future of their neighbourhoods
lead organising across the community, engage widely with the people who live there and use a range of approaches to involve different people in decision-making in ways that work for them

Their role is to develop a Pride in Place Plan in conjunction with the wider community. This plan should:

set out a long-term vision for the area
identify projects the community wants to prioritise and describe how funding will be allocated to deliver that vision
outline a clear pathway for delivering these projects over the 10-year period (and how the work will be sustained beyond it)
consider opportunities to attract and align additional funding, including existing public funding and potential private and philanthropic investment

Community capacity

Although the Pride in Place programme does not explicitly reference it, its long‑term success relies on one essential ingredient: community capacity.

Community capacity is the ability of local people to lead projects, shape decisions, and take ownership of initiatives in their neighbourhood. Its strongest predictor is social capital, the relationships, trust, and networks that connect people to one another. Without strong social capital, there is a real risk that activity becomes organisation‑led rather than genuinely community‑owned.

Building social capital depends on the strength of a community’s social infrastructure, the physical spaces, social networks, and institutional assets that enable people to meet, organise, and collaborate. When these foundations are recognised and invested in, communities are better able to come together and shape the future they want.

3ni believes that the Neighbourhood Board, and the wider Pride in Place programme, should place a deliberate focus on developing community capacity. Doing so will help ensure the programme grows beyond its 10‑year timeframe, reaches people who are not usually found in leadership roles, and ultimately becomes something held, driven, and sustained by the community, now and for generations to come.

Read our opinion pieces

Here you can find our commentary and reflections on Pride in Place

Pride in Place map

This map is an easy visual tool to find out where the Pride in Place areas are in the UK and which phase they belong to.

Open map in a new tab

Our support

3ni supports local authorities, Neighbourhood Boards and communities to translate Pride in Place from policy into practical, deliverable local action. We offer support in three main ways:

Convening and sharing

Bringing together councils, Neighbourhood Boards and local partners to share understanding of priorities, risks and what needs to happen first and next.
Creating practical spaces to work through common challenges (e.g. legitimacy and participation, early priorities, feasibility and sustaining engagement).
Organising peer learning for councils and Boards, sharing promising practice and learning from long-term neighbourhood programmes (such as Big Local).
Supporting alignment with wider partners and resources, helping places think through how Pride in Place can sit alongside other activity and investment in a way that is clear and workable.

PiP networking for councils

Governance, ways of working and processes

Setting up open, resident-led governance that’s robust but plain language: ToR/Code of Conduct, conflicts process, decision log, publishing routines.
Coordinating recruitment of the independent Chair and Board, including outreach and skills/representation tools to evidence legitimacy.
Producing MHCLG-ready boundary/benefit notes where needed (map, rationale, engagement evidence, approvals trail).
Turning requirements into working packs: funding/phasing, a monitoring pack that mirrors MHCLG returns and intervention mapping (including proportionate off-list cases).

Board recruitment with Maidstone Council

Evidence, engagement and evaluation

Building a decision-ready baseline that combines neighbourhood-level data with lived experience (interviews, walkabouts, community insight).
Supporting deep, broad and sustained engagement, with a clear evidence trail to underpin the Plan.
Supporting co-creation of the Plan: a usable Theory of Change, clear priorities and a realistic sequencing approach (including early wins).
Embedding proportionate evaluation aligned to the monitoring rhythm (learning and accountability without extra burden).
Leading research to get an understanding of the readiness and priorities of the community, outlining quick wins and broad themes.
Developing a strong evaluation framework that can be used throughout the process.
Reviewing previous community-led initiatives to bring together learnings for Pride in Place.

Want to learn more?

Get in touch to find out how we can work together.