James Child, Head of Research at ING Media, explores the UK government’s Pride in Place programme and whether it marks a genuine shift in regeneration policy. Drawing on London boroughs as a testing ground, he argues that investment must be matched with visible change, strong communication and a focus on everyday environments, from high streets to housing, if policy is to rebuild trust and civic pride.


As Pride in Place becomes the UK’s latest attempt to revive struggling communities, this article by ING Head of Research James Child explores whether policy has truly changed, or whether people’s lived environments still tell a story of decline. With high street deterioration driving political shifts, London’s boroughs offer a crucial test of whether Pride in Place can finally close the gap between ambition and experience. 

A new policy… or a lick of paint? 

The government’s Pride in Place programme, announced in late 2025, promises to support 339 of the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods with £5bn to help “communities drive change themselves”. You’d be right in thinking that you’ve heard all this before: from Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ austerity-era ambition to the Johnsonian ‘Levelling-Up’ agenda, successive governments have positioned themselves as champions of renewal, while the lived reality in many communities has remained largely unchanged. 

Each initiative has adopted new rhetoric, but the substance has shifted more slowly. Communities continue to experience decline most viscerally through everyday environments: high streets, neighbourhoods, local infrastructure and the places where daily life plays out. Pride in Place must therefore answer a difficult question: is this genuinely a break from the past, or simply another rebranding of the same unresolved challenges? 

Policy cycles and the long road to renewal 

Over the past two decades, UK place policy has evolved through three distinct phases: 

This latest shift acknowledges something practitioners in the built world have long understood: that people form emotional judgements long before they form economic ones. A clean street suggests care. An occupied unit signals optimism. A safe, well‑maintained borough implies community cohesion.

London boroughs: the testing ground for Pride in Place

London’s prosperity often masks stark inequalities, especially in its outer boroughs. While the city centre thrives, areas of Newham (7th most deprived area nationally), Barking and Dagenham (9th) and Hackney (10th) display the very conditions Pride in Place is designed to address. Tower Hamlets ranks as the most impoverished in terms of income deprivation among children, according to the official ONS data, yet the borough contains Canary Wharf. Likewise, Hackney and Newham are adjacent to Olympic legacy infrastructure, creating a powerful juxtaposition of economic growth and local people failing to benefit from it.

Londoners overall are more likely to report their high street is in good condition than residents in other English regions (42% vs ~31–32%), according to recent YouGov polling. Yet this masks a powerful geography: the most persistent decline is concentrated not in Zone 1 but in boroughs where a declining ‘town centre’ offer, shuttered units and lower-quality public realm create a visible sense of neglect.

These neighbourhood-level environments are often where the “visibility gap” is felt most sharply – the gap between what national policy promises and what residents actually see around them.

The visibility gap and the politics of decline

The emotional experience of place now shapes national sentiment. Support for Reform UK is strongest in areas experiencing long-term deterioration in everyday environments – the same areas with the largest increases in persistent vacancy. In 2024 alone, nearly 13,500 shops closed across the UK – approximately 37 per day – according to the latest Centre for Retail Research analysis. Closures have been acute in northern towns, the Midlands and coastal communities, where Reform currently polls closest to Labour.

Research from the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (ICON) shows England’s poorest areas now have 70% more vape shops, bookmakers and off‑licences than wealthier areas, as well as fewer gyms, cafés and childcare facilities. These hyperlocal parades, the “shops around the corner” rather than town centre destinations, have become emblematic of decline in the public imagination.

When the places people rely on every day feel neglected, trust erodes. And when investment arrives too slowly or isn’t communicated effectively, political alternatives gain ground.

Communications and research: the regeneration toolkit

For Pride in Place to succeed, fiscal investment must be matched with a strong, visible narrative.
 

At ING, our engagement work across London’s built world stakeholders consistently shows that residents respond most strongly to visible signs of care. Pride in Place should not be a copy-and-paste approach, and any fiscal reward must be met with a robust, independent strategy for delivering what each specific community needs.

ING’s Most Talked About Cities research series, which is now in its eighth year, shows that culture is what gets people most animated about place. It’s the most instantly recognisable asset that can define an area. Whether cultural institutions like museums or galleries, live music and the arts, or local community centres, the emotive elements of place are how you connect people to identity and pride in a location. This is true not only in London, but by borough, by high street – or village, town or region.

Pride in Place: does policy meet perception?

Interventions around culture and local environment shift perception long before large-scale redevelopment appears. Pride in Place aims to close that gap by reframing regeneration around lived experience. Government guidance now explicitly links local pride to the quality of homes, high streets, cultural infrastructure, safety, public realm, greenery and heritage. In other words: the everyday places people touch.

A high street that feels cared for builds confidence. A well‑maintained park creates belonging. A mixed‑tenure housing development that is beautiful, safe and connected generates trust. These emotional signals are as important as formal masterplans.

The built world shapes identity and Pride in Place is the first national policy to truly recognise this.