Published in September 2026, Whose neighbourhood? is a research report examining the early implementation of the UK Government’s Pride in Place programme and what it means to put communities genuinely at the heart of neighbourhood renewal.
Commissioned by Key Cities and undertaken by the Key Cities Innovation Network (KCIN) in partnership with the University of Plymouth’s Centre for Place, the research draws on experience from Pride in Place neighbourhoods across England and Wales. It explores how local authorities, MPs, community organisations and residents are responding to a programme that gives selected neighbourhoods long-term investment and greater responsibility for determining their own priorities.
The research identifies both the potential of the programme and some of the practical challenges involved in moving from consultation towards genuine community agency and co-design. These include building local capacity, establishing effective governance and accountability, making better use of neighbourhood-level data and evidence, and creating mechanisms through which places can learn from one another rather than repeatedly reinventing solutions locally.
At the heart of Whose neighbourhood? is a wider question about the role of place in public policy. The report argues that the ten-year horizon of Pride in Place creates an important opportunity to develop new approaches in which communities are not simply consulted about decisions made elsewhere, but have the capability, evidence and relationships needed to shape the future of their own neighbourhoods.
Authored by Professor Katharine Willis and Kasper de Graaf, the report is based on in-depth interviews across seven Pride in Place neighbourhoods and consultation with parliamentarians, local authorities, stakeholders, universities and government. It combines evidence from places at the forefront of the programme with wider policy analysis to identify practical lessons for the next phase of Pride in Place and for the future of neighbourhood-based policy more broadly.