The Government’s Pride in Place Strategy

The Government has published the Pride in Place Strategy about empowering communities and neighbourhoods, providing tools and levers to drive meaningful change that reflects their priorities.

With references to New Towns and Neighbourhood Health, the Strategy and the accompanying £150m Impact Fund announced are underpinned by a package of proposals for 95 deprived communities in England, Scotland and Wales under 3 core objectives:

• To build stronger communities 
• To create thriving places
• To empower people to take back control

As part of the programme in England , Tackling Loneliness Hubs, an online platform facilitating knowledge-sharing and networking, will be established. In addition, they have launched the Digital Inclusion Action Plan to help local authorities connect residents with Wi-Fi and devices and prioritise connections to 500 community hubs in deprived areas, including those in low-income housing.

The strategy reiterates the government’s commitment to invest in social and affordable. However, it also announced a new Co-operative Development Unit within MHCLG , which will contribute to the local authorities in England to grow their co-operative and mutual economy.

While the strategy does not specifically refer to older people or intergenerational communities, Pride in Place accords with the Housing LIN’s approaches to collaborative practice as outlined in our CollaborAGE directory. For more on talking loneliness and reducing isolation, check out the Housing LIN’s dedicated pages here.