Our vision for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods

The APPG wants a future where ‘left behind’ communities and the places in which they live are transformed, making them models of resilience and adaptability.

We want to see the best-case scenario that we identify in this report becoming reality, where:

Government rethinks and refreshes their current policy objectives and approaches with new underpinning
principles which are specifically designed to benefit ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods across the country
It adjusts its approach to making funding decisions to account for the very different starting positions of ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, ensuring early investment in the necessary building blocks for community-led change
New processes are developed to harness the experience and capacity of local people at the neighbourhood level in every stage of policy development, from conception, to design, and delivery
Local residents are encouraged, incentivised, and supported to engage in decision-making processes and take ownership of their community’s development
A solid foundation for sustainable growth and regeneration is created through long- term investments
Young people get a fair chance to develop their skills and prepare for rewarding careers through quality education and training programmes
Adults in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods are offered bespoke pathways to high- quality technical qualifications and adult education programmes, allowing them to up-skill, re-skill, and take new employment opportunities
Good jobs become available so that people don’t need to leave in search of opportunities
Access to quality healthcare and social services helps address long-standing health disparities.

As the lives of people in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods improve, the whole country benefits from the transformation both regionally and nationally.

“Although on a day-to-day basis we are busy dealing with people’s immediate needs, we know that if we want to improve the lives of residents in the long term, we need to work on the bigger picture. This is to raise aspirations and be a representative voice for Revoe. That means empowering and enabling people to be involved in strategic conversations.”

_{Angie Buss, Blackpool Revoe Big Local, oral evidence to inquiry session three}

Learning from what works

Since the 1980s, successive governments have sought to include communities and local stakeholders in regeneration efforts. A rapid review of evidence conducted by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research on the impact of English regeneration policy over the past 40 years found that community-led partnerships adopting a strategic, holistic approach to area regeneration in deprived areas have achieved positive change (Local Trust, 2019b).The most impactful initiatives have been long-term, with opportunities for residents to influence the decision-making process. Similarly, Onward’s analysis of national and international regeneration schemes found that those with the most success focused on smaller geographic areas such as neighbourhoods, invested in community capacity over the long-term, and helped communities take ownership of local assets (Onward, 2021).

We know that when community regeneration happens, it restores pride in place. The biggest changes that we see in areas where community regeneration happens are in relation to the way that people feel about the places that they live.
Professor Sarah Pearson, Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, oral evidence to inquiry session three

Yet community-led regeneration remains the exception rather than the rule when it comes to neighbourhood- based improvement programmes. This is particularly the case for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, which generally lack the flexible, long-term funding and policy support needed to transform local conditions. There is clearly scope to expand on current levels of community mobilisation; the proportion of ‘left behind’ residents participating in community groups is significantly lower than the national average (OCSI, 2020a). Charitable and third sector organisations are also less than half as likely to have a presence in these neighbourhoods, compared to the England- wide average (OCSI, 2020a).

To kick-start local change, the government should re-imagine its levelling up agenda with more powers devolved more locally, including directly to communities themselves. Funding should be allocated and managed in very different ways, with resources held and deployed by communities within a framework of tailored support, capacity-building and enablement. We must underpin these changes with a major cultural shift in our institutions and policymaking.

That's one of the great things about community-led action: it can experiment, it can make mistakes, it can seek forgiveness not permission, in a way that local authorities can't.

Toby Lloyd, housing and regeneration policy expert, oral evidence to inquiry session three

About the Big Local programme

In terms of scale, time horizon and ethos, nothing like Big Local has ever existed. Designed from the outset to be radically different from other funding programmes, at the heart of Big Local is a vision of empowered, resilient, dynamic, asset-rich communities making their own decisions on what is best for their area.

Providing at least £1.15m each to 150 disadvantaged communities in England, Big Local is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and managed by Local Trust. Local Trust works nationally with a range of partners to deliver Big Local, building on the skills and experiences of others to provide expert advice and support for residents.

Big Local was established with a number of core key features that make it different from other programmes. It is:

Long term – providing certainty and continuity, over 10-15 years
Resident-led – working directly with individuals living, working, studying and playing in areas rather than through organisations; building confidence and capacity amongst those wanting to make a difference to their community and their local area
Non-prescriptive – enabling residents to spend on their own terms and in their own time, on the projects they judge to be most important to them
Patient and non-judgemental – giving communities the time and opportunity to learn, make mistakes, resolve disagreements and overcome challenges for themselves, on their way to achieving their ambitions
Accompanied by flexible and responsive support – to help communities to build the confidence and capability to make the most of the opportunities available to them, whilst not constraining their own ambition and initiative.

This approach is designed to ensure residents’ time and energy is spent on the things that make a lasting difference to people and communities. The programme structure maintains this core ethos while ensuring appropriate systems and checks are in place to account for funding.

The outcomes set for Big Local at its outset were deliberately broad:

Communities will be better able to identify local needs and take action in response to them
People will have increased skills and confidence, so that they continue to identify and respond to needs in the future
The community will make a difference to the needs it prioritises
People will feel that their area is an even better place to live.

These provide maximum scope for communities to set their own priorities. To help them make the most of their opportunity, residents involved in Big Local have been supported in developing and delivering their plans by an extensive programme of training, networking and light-touch on the ground support, provided by Local Trust and its partners.

Representatives of Big Local partnerships and other community groups gave evidence to the inquiry, illustrating what local area-based community-led change projects could achieve with the right policy environment and funding support from government and others.

They provide case studies of the kinds of transformational outcomes that can be achieved in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods when communities are enabled, trusted and funded to pursue their own priorities.

Case Studies

Revoelution, Blackpool

Revoe is a neighbourhood near the centre of Blackpool, a town whose economy has faced significant challenges since the decline of domestic tourism in the late 20th century. Revoelution is a partnership of residents and individuals working or volunteering within the local area. The group have established a small community hub within a former warden’s house, and fund and deliver a variety of projects identified by the wider Revoe community. The partnership have prioritised engagement with residents, using regular door knocking and community consultation, as well as operating an ‘open door’ policy at their base which welcomes over 100 people each week.

The partnership’s focus on outreach means it has been well positioned to respond to local need in times of crisis, providing vital mutual aid throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as support, resources and advice in response to the rising cost of living. Revoelution distribute food parcels and provide small household grants; and have also worked in partnership with the NHS to support their own outreach efforts.

Revoelution’s work has transformed the social infrastructure and activities on offer to local residents: establishing a community garden, job support, craft club, walking and youth football groups, alongside offering targeted support to assist residents accessing statutory services. The partnership’s success means that it has outgrown its small base and hopes to expand its work with the community by finding a more suitable space for their operations.

“We’ve got a small community centre which holds 50 people sitting down and a hundred standing up. But it’s fully, fully booked. We’d like to do so much more.”

_{Angie Buss, Blackpool Revoe Big Local, oral evidence to inquiry session three}

Dover Big Local

Dover Town sits within a valley, split from the seafront by the A20 dual carriageway. This separation means it benefits little from the passing port traffic and has instead suffered from economic decline. Similarly, the area’s main attraction, Dover Castle, is situated above the town, bringing in minimal footfall for the high street and local businesses.

Dover Big Local is a partnership of community members whose work has focused on developing the local economy and boosting employment. The partnership has worked with other local organisations to set up a Job Club, with a specialist advisor funded by Southern Housing Group. The club helps local people find employment and supports them with computer literacy, CV writing and interview preparation. This scheme proved so effective that, following layoffs at P&O ferries which affected 600 local seafarers, Dover District Council adapted and expanded it, in partnership with the town’s main employers, the Port of Dover, DFDS, Eurotunnel, Customs and Excise, to help those who had suddenly lost their livelihoods.

In 2018, a partnership between Dover Big Local, the voluntary sector and Dover District Council saw the creation of the ‘Co-Innovation Centre’, an incubator space for local businesses. Affordable rents coupled with a one-month notice period provided an opportunity for businesses to prove their viability with little financial risk. The Co-Innovation Hub also offers low-cost co-working spaces, meeting rooms and a training space.

Dover Big Local employ a marketing and tourism specialist, splitting the salary with the town council. The specialist works together with local travel agencies, visitor attractions and stakeholders such as English Heritage to raise the profile and appeal of Dover as a tourist destination. This joint venture has been particularly successful, notably forging links with local businesses, cruise liners and the port to increase dwell time for cruise ships. The position has also helped to secure funding to expand the calendar of community events, live music and street entertainers and for new bike hire facilities along the seafront and at the castle, all of which are helping to boost footfall and hotel and hospitality income in the town centre.

The group’s proactive approach to partnership working with other local organisations, charities, businesses and local government is delivering a much-needed boost to the local economy. Dover Big Local was a founding member of Dover Pantry, a social supermarket that uses gleaning, surplus supermarket stock, and late date goods to provide a membership based low- cost food care weekly shopping basket for low income families. They continue to offer HR and employment services to the Pantry and works in partnership with it to draw Pantry users towards the advice, employment service and wellbeing sessions offered at Dover Big Local’s town centre hub.

“We developed an empty supermarket site into an incubator hub for local people to experience building a business from a market store to a unit, and then, with support, into an online or bricks-and-mortar retail shop. People could operate from the small unit with a basic monthly agreement and soon we had over 40 businesses operating from the Co-Innovation Centre… Thus far, 10 of those businesses have successfully moved into retail shops and offices in the town centre.”

_{John Angell, Dover Big Local, oral evidence to inquiry session two}

East Marsh United

East Marsh is situated in Grimsby. The area was a marsh until the railways arrived in the 19th century, at which point houses were built for workers to serve the fishing industry. The fishing industry has since declined, and the area suffers from significant deprivation. Crime levels are particularly high, with violence, property destruction and county lines drug offences stifling local pride-in-place.

East Marsh United are a community-led organisation, created initially as a forum for volunteers to work on improving pride in place and the local environment. From this initial action, the group gained momentum and soon began to tackle bigger issues locally, motivated by the aim to build community wealth locally and stop wealth extraction.

East Marsh United have worked extensively to cultivate community-led arts, with Revolutionary East Marsh Arts Kollective (REMAKe) running a three-year programme of workshops and events between 2019 and 2022, assisted by funding from the Creative Civic Change programme. The group have also developed a community magazine, the Proud East Marshian, published online each month by passionate local residents, alongside a Peace Choir, reading groups and original YouTube series.

East Marsh United have teamed up with the Worker’s Educational Association (WEA) to provide accessible employment and skills training to local residents through the East Marsh Community Education Branch. There are plans in the works to boost the local social infrastructure provision by building a new East Marsh Village Hall. And the partnership are seeking out ways to give residents a voice in local regeneration, leading on an East Marsh Plan and ambitious tree-planting initiative.

As a Community Benefit Society, East Marsh United are the proud owners of ten local houses, which they have refurbished to a high standard. As they seek to grow their housing stock, the partnership are looking to work closely with other landlords to improve practices and standards across the East Marsh.

East Marsh United are a fantastic example of how resident-led action can create ripple effects of positive change throughout a community: improving housing conditions, boosting local employment and skills, and cultivating pride-in-place.

“In 2017, our main activity was framed around ‘broken windows theory’. We began fixing metaphorical broken windows by going out and cleaning our streets with our own bin bags and brushes and shovels and so on. But we also sat together every week to work out what else was broken and how we might be able to fix things ourselves.

We realised that it can’t just be one thing, it has to be everything all at once all the time. So we have lots of projects, in arts education, community outreach, wellbeing, finance, as well as bigger infrastructure projects such as community housing, a village hall, planting trees in the streets and in our park.”

_{Billy Dasein, East Marsh United, oral evidence to inquiry session four}

Gaunless Gateway Big Local

Bishop Auckland is a market town that sits in County Durham. The area was formerly reliant on mining and heavy industries and has been heavily impacted by their decline. Like other areas identified as ‘left behind’, the neighbourhood where Gaunless Gateway Big Local operates experiences high levels of deprivation across all metrics, with 35% of children in the area living in poverty, compared to the national average of 20%. The area also experiences higher levels of violent crime and more than double the national average of anti-social behaviour incidents.

In response to these challenges, this resident-led partnership has prioritised forming strong partnerships with other organisations and agencies to bring in the support they need. They have invested Big Local funding in projects that have delivered improvements to local social infrastructure, supported residents into employment and improved overall community cohesion. This includes a long- term partnership focused on creative arts, a table tennis club, bursary scheme for college leavers completing apprenticeship elements of trade qualifications, employment workshops and support to a crisis and welfare service. The partnership has also collaborated with other local organisations and service providers to meet gaps in existing youth provision and address anti-social behaviour, liaising with local police, housing officers, the parish council and Men’s Club to expand the activities on offer to young people through the West Auckland Youth Initiative.

Gaunless Gateway is securing a legacy by investing to build the capacity of local community organisations. This includes the revival of a disused building in the centre of Henknowle as a centre of social enterprise, seeking to develop job opportunities for young people with autism and other learning disabilities in the area by supporting the development of a creative enterprise hub called ‘Bridge Creative’. In doing so, the resident-led partnership are helping to build a strong network of organisations that will lever in additional funding and provide support and services for the community into the future.

“The resident-led element of control in our programme is curious, open, reasoned and measured, acknowledging practical local conditions and developments, having that Heineken effect in reaching those who may have switched off from traditional methods of decision- making.”

_{Barbara Slasor, Gaunless Gateway Big Local, oral evidence to inquiry session four}

Building blocks for local transformation

The community groups giving evidence to the inquiry showcased the potential in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods if they are given the necessary support, resources and autonomy. Once these conditions are met, communities will often make choices that enhance local economic development, such as:

investing in apprenticeship schemes and community-based skills training
supporting important local services like transport schemes
encouraging new employers to relocate to their area
providing micro-grants or targeted support for sustainable enterprises (Centre for Local Economic Strategies, 2020).

Oral and written evidence to the inquiry welcomed the positive impact of initiatives like social prescribing, an approach connecting people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs affecting their health and wellbeing. However, these efforts can falter in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods because of limited investment, public services and the lack of social infrastructure there to support it (Coalfields Regeneration Trust, 2023).

It is crucial that these building blocks are put in place wherever they are missing – for example by addressing the lack of green spaces in many ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods and investing in community buildings (Fields in Trust, 2023). Only then will ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods be able to benefit from the kinds of policy and funding support the government has tended to prefer so far in its levelling up agenda.

20 per cent, and that's a conservative estimate, of GP appointments are for social determinants. They are for issues like loneliness, social isolation, stress as a result of financial issues, debt relief, and so on. That’s 30 million appointments a year. Social prescribing is about offering non- medical interventions to support those unmet needs.

Jim Burt, National Academy for Social Prescribing, oral evidence to inquiry session one

Communities also have unique local expertise about assets of particular value which policymakers should tap into to transform ‘left behind’ places. Communities will invest – again, where sufficient support, resources, and autonomy are in place – to safeguard these assets, creating the core of more dynamic and resilient local economic development. Community businesses and other kinds of groups take on treasured neighbourhood assets – from boating lakes to pubs and community hubs – which then function as footholds for local wealth generation (Power to Change, 2023; Plunkett Foundation, 2023).

Improving place-based outcomes can also help to drive the long-term economic strength of a place. Where young people are able to build strong social networks, they will be more likely to view living in their home town after school or further education as a positive choice (Foundational Economy, 2022). Promoting the development of social infrastructure would enhance this social connection, and help engender a sense of civic pride. This, in turn, has been shown to drive higher levels of community mobilisation, creating a virtuous circle of improvement in local conditions (Collins, 2016).

By addressing these unique challenges and investing in crucial local social infrastructure, policymakers can turbo-charge existing efforts to disrupt cycles of disadvantage and allow individuals to contribute meaningfully to their communities and the wider economy. The impact of tapping into these reservoirs of potential could be significant and far-reaching (Social Mobility Commission, 2022).

Setting the stage for national transformation

Improving outcomes in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods will lead to benefits that will be felt far beyond their immediate residents and help achieve the government’s wider policy goals. Investing in these neighbourhoods will stimulate innovation and economic growth in areas that have historically been overlooked. Building local opportunities could put an end to entrenched or multi-generational disadvantage and inequality, retain talent and increase possibilities for these communities. Transformation of this kind means creating attractive places to live that offer a good-quality environment, a selection of social, leisure and other opportunities, and a sense of local belonging and pride (Bennett Institute, 2021).

Evidence heard over the course of the inquiry referenced the potential of a Community Wealth Fund to generate positive change in deprived and ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods. Indeed, recent analysis found that a £1m investment in community-led social infrastructure in a ‘left behind’ neighbourhood could yield a return of as much as £3.2m in socioeconomic benefits over the course of a decade. These could include increased employment, boosted public health, additional value from wealth creation and economic activity; alongside reduced costs from crime and reduced demand on public services (Frontier Economics, 2021).

‘Softer’ outcomes, such as reduced loneliness or improved social cohesion, are harder to factor into an economic analysis – but are no less real or important. For example, heightened community participation has been shown to help tackle some important causes of poor mental health by reducing isolation and loneliness (Britton, 2020). In Wigan, the ‘Deal’ approach saw a combination of increased community engagement and leadership, alongside innovative practices in citizen-driven public health, yield an important increase in healthy life expectancy (Naylor et al., 2019). Analysis shows that investment in ‘quality of place’ in a deprived neighbourhood could lead to above-average improvements in place- based outcomes (Naylor et al., 2019).

Going back to this idea of effective community hubs, in many instances what I would be saying is that the community hub is an engine room for social prescribing. Not only does it provide the services and the social capital but it often does that in a really innovative way. That’s where the innovation is, right there at the local level.
Jim Burt, National Academy for Social Prescribing, oral evidence to inquiry session one

As this evidence indicates, transforming the fates of ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods and the life chances of local residents could also lead to a reduction in demand on public services (Demos, 2023). By addressing the root causes of disadvantage and inequality, fewer resources would be needed to provide support in areas such as health, education, and social care (APPG for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, 2022b). This could have multiple knock-on benefits, including cost savings for taxpayers, more efficient use of public resources, and improved outcomes for individuals and communities. For example, the Marmot review found a correlation between greater community leadership and reductions in many sources of poor public health (Marmot et al., 2020).

More resilient communities in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods would be better equipped to respond to major challenges and step up in times of crisis, ensuring better social outcomes across the country (Tiratelli et al., 2020).

In all these ways, transforming ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods could produce a foundation for renewed national prosperity. By improving economic outcomes and productivity in these places, we can achieve a more prosperous and equitable society. Previous APPG research suggests that, in health outcomes alone, closing the gap between local authorities with ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods and those without could add an extra £29.8bn to the country’s economy each year (APPG for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, 2022b).

During the pandemic, community hubs in a whole shape of forms were really successful at responding quickly to address people’s needs. They responded in a very strategic way to address the needs of isolated people, and at the time there was a lot of positive discussion about the relationships that we have with our communities and the fact that we know where to go and can mobilise volunteers.

Professor Mark Gamsu, Leeds Beckett University, oral evidence to inquiry session one

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