The UK Government's Pride in Place strategy highlights the role of arts, culture and heritage in rebuilding communities 

The UK Government's new Pride in Place Programme is committing £5 billion over 10 years to 244 areas across England, Scotland and Wales (a separate programme is being set up for Northern Ireland), with the aim of restoring pride and prosperity in the nation's most deprived neighbourhoods.

The programme, led by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) includes 75 phase 1 places and 169 phase 2 places. The Programme is targeting areas the government has identified as having both high deprivation levels and weak social infrastructure.

Each area will receive £20m over the next decade, to spend across the themes of “building stronger communities”, creating thriving places” and helping communities to take back control of their own lives and areas”. 

Neighbourhood Boards

The plan for how the money will be spent in each area will be developed by 'Neighbourhood Boards'. These boards should include representatives from cultural, arts, heritage and sporting organisations, such as local sports clubs or sporting organisations, local heritage groups or local museums and arts spaces. 

What can the money be spent on?

The MHCLG list of indicative interventions includes: Enhanced support for arts, cultural, heritage and creative activities, projects and facilities and historic institutions that make up the local cultural heritage offer. It also includes 'Cohesion: measures to improve community cohesion'.

Example interventions include:

• organising event programmes for local assets and sites, such as youth centres and public libraries, and their communities
• developing, restoring or refurbishing local natural, cultural and heritage assets and sites, including for new uses by the community

As well as:

• projects that bring people together from different groups, including different faiths, for various objectives, including social mixing, intercommunity conversations, volunteering, and conflict resolution
• projects which celebrate and explore different cultures and lives, such as neighbourhood festivals and cultural exchange opportunities   

Funding for local arts, cultural, heritage and creative initiatives

Example interventions include:

• funding to support maker spaces
• support for local art galleries, museums, and libraries to host exhibitions
• support for artists to display and showcase work
• funding for cultural, heritage and creative events, for example, locally led music and theatre performances, tours, author events and film screenings
• support for the establishment and development of cultural and heritage collaborative networks to share knowledge locally

More about the Pride in Place scheme:

The National Charity Locality are running a series of briefing events. 

Libraries Connected have also put together a helpful briefing.