Levelling up local outcomes: the importance of community spaces to neighbourhood regeneration
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One year on from the 'Levelling Up White Paper', much greater progress on reducing regional inequality is needed. For 'left behind' neighbourhoods (LBNs) - the 225 areas across England in the most deprived 10% (based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation) and in the bottom 10% for social infrastructure assets - this need is especially pressing.
This paper, produced by Local Trust with Reform as part of our work for the APPG on 'left behind' neighbourhoods, sets out the double-bind facing these deprived areas, many of which have the worst socio-economic outcomes of anywhere in England. It calls for a renewed focus on social infrastructure and a sustained commitment from government to scale-up community assets in these 'left behind' neighbourhoods.
The report presents three headline policy recommendations:
- The Government should ensure that its proposed Strategy for Community Spaces and Relationships constitutes a long-term, hyper-local, evidence-led strategy to place social infrastructure at the heart of Levelling Up
- The Government should introduce a reinvented Levelling Up funding model that directly targets investment at 'left behind' neighbourhoods
- The Government should deliver new community rights, such as a new Community Right to Own, that are underpinned by new resources from central government