Pride in Place: funding gaps and capacity challenges

The UK is marked by deep and persistent spatial inequalities. While deprivation is widespread, it is disproportionately concentrated in ex-industrial towns, coastal areas and some inner-city neighbourhoods, driven by a combination of factors including weak labour markets and high housing costs. Where you live can shape both your income and also your ability to feel economically secure, withstand shocks and unexpected setbacks.

Amplifying the impact of disadvantage, neighbourhoods with both high socio-economic deprivation and weaker social infrastructure (community spaces, activities, services and everyday local connections) are referred to as doubly disadvantaged. Social infrastructure is not just about tangible local places, it also means the community activities taking place within them, and the intangible social bonds created as a consequence; from catching up with volunteers at a community gardening session, taking part in a free group fitness class in a park, or simply chatting to other parents at a weekend sports club.

In deprived neighbourhoods where these kinds of spaces, activities and connections are lacking, residents face not only material hardship but also have fewer community assets, weaker networks, and more limited access to localised support.

The Government aims to tackle this problem with their Pride in Place Programme (PiPP), allocating up to £5 billion to 146 doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods across England, over the next decade. The Government is right to prioritise social infrastructure as a foundation for economic security. However, the extent to which current funding aligns with the geography and intensity of need remains an open question.

The following technical analysis examines how doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods are distributed across England. It also assesses how PiPP funding allocations align with, and diverge from, patterns of concentrated need, highlighting critical funding gaps. Finally, it considers whether funded neighbourhoods have the foundations for community-led delivery, by dissecting the dimensions of strong social infrastructure to focus on levels of community activation, participation and engagement.